Off the Wall Chess Trivia
Off the Wall Chess Trivia is jammed with tons of little-known facts, historical gems, and amazing stories - all you could possibly think of that defines chess. Whether you are a chess enthusiast or just a dabbler, you will be delighted, amazed and amused by this resource. Here are a couple of tidbits to ponder. Did you know that Bobby Fischer, Barbra Streissand, and Grandmaster/murderer Raymond Weinstein all went to Eramus High School together? Or that Humphrey Bogart hustled strangers at 5-minute chess for 50 cents a game at chess parlors in New York Times Square? These fascinating nuggets, along with everything else you’ve ever wanted to know about chess, are to be found within this easyto-browse e-book.

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Many thanks to Bill Wall for his countless hours of research, and for allowing us to publish this e-book as a free download at ChessCentral. Sid Pickard Pickard & Son, Publishers Wylie, TX www.ChessCentral.com

won the British Championship at the age of 17 and became a Grandmaster. He was born in Toungoo. Michael (1971.Chess Trivia
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Aaron. Manual (1935. Mexico and received $50. Adams. in 1989.000. Burma and became an International Arbiter in 1966. Active Chess The first official Active Chess (30 minutes per game) tournament was held in Gijon.000 for AIDS research.) First International Master (1961) from India. www. Spain in 1988 and won by Karpov and Tukmakov.com
. Karpov won the World Active Championship in Mazatlan. The organizers of the event donated $100. Academy.) British Grandmaster who.ChessCentral. Chess The first chess academy was conducted at Fountainbleau. France in 1680.

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Adams, Weaver (1901-1963) US master who won the US Open in 1948. In 1939 he wrote a book entitled, White to Play and Win. After publication he played a tournament in Dallas. He lost all his games as White and won all his games as Black! Addison, William (1933- ) US International Master and considered the best Go player among chess masters. He competed in the 1970 Interzonal in Palma de Mallorca then gave up chess for a career in banking. Adianto, Utut (1965- ) First Indonesian Grandmaster (1986). He was born in Jakarta, Indonesia. He is a former World Junior Champion. Adjournment Closure of a playing session where a player seals his next move. First introduced at Paris in 1878, adjournments are now rare. Agdestein, Simen (1967- ) Norwegian Grandmaster (1985) who tied for the World Junior Championship with Arencibia in 1986. He has reprewww.ChessCentral.com

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sented Norway on their soccer team. He has won the Norwegian championship 4 times, the first when he was 15. Ager chessmen Chess pieces found in Ager, Spain carved in rock crystal. They are an example of the earliest type of chessmen used in Europe. It was a popular, although untrue, tradition that this set belonged to Charlemagne. Agzamov, Georgy (1954-1986) Russian Grandmaster (1984) who was accidently killed when he tried to take a short cut to go swimming and fell down between two rocks. AIPE Association Internationale de la Presse Echiqueenne. It is an organization of chess journalists founded in 1968 by Jordi Puig. AIPE awards the chess Oscars to the outstanding male and female players of the year. The 1997 chess Oscar went to Anand. Aitken, James (1908-1983) Won the Scottish chess championship 10 times. www.ChessCentral.com

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Ajeeb The name of the chess automaton built by Charles Hopper, a Bristol cabinet-maker, in 1865. The life-size Indian figure was operated by several chess and checker masters. One opponent shot at Ajeeb after losing a game, wounding the operator. One of the operators of Ajeeb was chess and checker master Constant Ferdinand Burille. During his years as operator, he played over 900 games of chess and only lost 3 games. He never lost a single checker game. Pillsbury was its hidden operator from 1898 to 1904. When Ajeeb was on display in New York at the Eden Musee, it played checkers for a dime and chess for a quarter. Opponents included Theodore Roosevelt, Houdini, Admiral Dewey, O. Henry and Sarah Bernhardt. Ajeeb was 10 feet high. Ajeeb was first exhibited at the Royal Polytechnical Institute in London in 1868. It was lodged at the Crystal Palace between 1868 and 1876 and then went to the Royal Aquarium at Westminster until 1877. It was then taken to Berlin where over 100,000 saw it in three months. It came to New York in 1885. It was destroyed by fire at Coney Island in 1929. www.ChessCentral.com

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Charles Barker, US checkers champion, also worked Ajeeb, never losing a single game. Akhmilovskaya, Elena (1957- ) Woman Grandmaster from the Soviet Union who was the 1986 World Women’s Championship challenger. In 1988 she eloped with American IM John Donaldson while playing in the ches olympiad in Greece. She returned to the Soviet Union almost a year later to get her 7 year-old daughter. It took three weeks to secure their exit visas. Her mother, Lidia Akhmilovskaya, qualified several times for the USSR Women’s Championship and was a top-ranked correspondence player. Akhsharumova-Gulko, Anna (1958- ) Finished first in the 1976 Soviet Women’s Championship. Her husband, Boris Gulko, tied for first in the 1977 Soviet Men’s Championship. By all rights, she should have won the 1983 Soviet Women’s title played in Tallinn when she defeated her main competitor, Nona Ioseliani after she won by time forfeit. It would have given her 12 points to Nona’s 11 points. The next day, Ioseliani filed a protest alleging a malfunction in the www.ChessCentral.com

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clock. Anna refused to play. The result of her game was arbitrarily reversed by the All-Union Board of Referees in Moscow, thereby forfeiting her title and ending up in 3rd place. She regained the Soviet women’s crown in 1984. She won the U.S. Women’s championship in 1987 with a perfect 9-0 score. Akins, Claude (1926-1993) Movie actor and chess enthusiast. He taught Dean Martin the game and always beat John Wayne. Akopian, Vladimir (1971- ) World Under-16 Champion in 1986 and World Junior Champion in 1991. al-Adli (800?-860?) Father of opening analysis. He is credited with the use of descriptive chess notation and a rating system (5 classes of players). He was the strongest player of his time until defeated by ar-Razi. Alburt, Lev (1945- ) Russian Grandmaster who defected from the USSR in 1979. He has won the U.S. Championship 3 times and the www.ChessCentral.com

Open twice. He has a doctorate in physics and natural philosophy. Alekhine. Alexander (1892-1946)
Alexander Alekhine (Aljechin) was the son of a wealthy landowner.com
. He was the first Grandmaster elected to the governing body of the US Chess Federation.S.Chess Trivia
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U. He learned chess from his older brother around age 11.ChessCentral. He was a prisoner of www. At 17 he gained his master title after winning a tournament in St Petersburg.

After World War I. In 1925 he became a naturalized French citizen and entered the Sorbonne Law School. There. losing 3. He was captured by the Austrians and was hospitalized in Tarnapol due to a spinal injury. In 1919 he was imprisoned in the death cell at Odessa as a spy. In 1920 he was back in Moscow intending to be a movie actor.ChessCentral. he developed his blindfold skills. winning 22. In 1927 he defeated Capablanca in Buenos Aiwww. He also served as interpreter to the Communist party and was appointed secretary to the Education Department. Germany but he feigned madness and the Germans released him as unfit for military service. He was taken to Rastatt. drawing 3. the Russian government decorated him for bravery. In 1918 he was a criminal investigator in Moscow.com
. In 1921 he married a foreign Communist delegate and left Russia for good. At the Sorbonne his thesis dealt with the Chinese prison system.Chess Trivia
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war like all the other chess contestants at an international tournament in Mannheim in 1914. He did not get his doctorate from the Sorbonne as he claimed. In 1925 he played 28 games blindfolded. In 1915 and 1916 he served in the Russian Red Cross. He won the first Soviet chess championship in 1920.

In 1930 he scored the first 100% score in the Chess Olympiad. and 25 draws. Alekhine won the match with 6 wins. Before this match. Alekhine had not won a single game from www. Portugal after choking on an unchewed piece of meat. The body was not buried for 3 weeks as no one claimed the body. 3 losses. His tombstone has his birth and death date wrong. winning 9 games on board 1 for France. but regained it in a return match in 1937. During World War II. paid by the French Chess Federation. Only 10 people showed up for his funeral. He competed in seven tournaments in Germany during the war and wrote several pro-Nazi articles. The Portugese Chess Federation took charge of the funeral. he became a Nazi collaborator and declared he was ready to sacrifice his life for a Nazi Russia. In 1935 he lost his world championship to Max Euwe. Alekhine-Capablanca Match 1927 The entire match between Alekhine and Capablanca in 1927 took place behind closed doors in Buenos Aires.ChessCentral. His remains were transferred to Paris in 1956. He died in Estoril. There were no spectators or photographs.com
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res for the world chess championship.

Conel Hugh O’Donel (1909-1974) Won the British Championship in 1938 and 1956. He was given the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his wartime services. He also wrote The Beauties of Chess in 1846. he introduced the algebraic notation and the castling symbols O-O and O-O-O. and had to have six teeth extracted. Alexander. the first large compilation of chess problems and endgames. Alexandre. the Turk. the first book containing the collection of all opening variations then known. After the start of the match Alekhine was suffering from an infection of the gums.ChessCentral. www. During World War II he was part of the British Government Code and Cypher Code along with other English chess masters who helped break the German Enigma Code. He was a Jewish rabbi who worked inside the automaton.Chess Trivia
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Capablanca.com
. He was prohibited from travelling to any country under Soviet control or influence during his lifetime because of his association with cryptography. Published in 1837. Aaron (1766-1850) Author of Encyclopedie des Echecs.

archery. Alfonso Manuscript A manuscript ordered by Alfonso the Wise (1221-1284). it is entitled Juegos Diuersos de Axedrez.Chess Trivia
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Alfonsi. Algebraic notation was introduced in Chess Life in 1969. King of Castile. y Tablas con sus Explications. Compiled in 1283. The other tasks included riding. Algebraic notation The first use of algebraic notation is from a French manuscript written in 1173. boxing. It is the first source mentioning the pawn’s double move on the first move. www. hawking. swimming. It wasn’t until 1974 that the first book employing the algebraic notation was published by a major American publisher. The first use of the figurine algebraic notation occurred in Belgium in 1927. and games of chance with dice. Petro Physician of King Henry I and author of the Disciplina Clericalis (Clerks Instruction). Dados.com
.ChessCentral. backgammon. It included chess. Ordenudos por man Dado Del Rey don Alonso el Sabio. and verse writing. He included chess as one of the seven knightly accomplishments to be mastered.

ChessCentral. All-Russian Chess Federation First Russian chess federation. formed in 1914. His analysis were carried down from Arabic to Persian to Sanscrit to Turkish to 16th century Italian. These are the first unofficial grandmasters of chess. Their endgames survive today. the strongest player of the 10th century. and abu’n-Na’am. www. He was a pupil of as-Suli.com
. It had 865 members. Rabrab. al-Ansari. The top four players were Jabir al-Kufi. He could successfully give odds to all other leading players. He was also known as Ali Shatrangi (Ali the Chessplayer). Alladin The strongest chessplayer at the end of the 14th century.Chess Trivia
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aliyat Title given by caliph al-Ma’mun to the top four chessplayers in the early ninth century. He was Chinese and a lawyer. al-Lajlaj (the Stammerer) First person to analyze and publish works on the openings in 910.

He died of dropsy.com
. when it beat Napoleon Bonaparte in 1809. He operated the chess automation The Turk. In 1078 Alfonso VI and Ibn-Ammar. Woody Actor who said that he wanted to be on his high school chess team. He was the first to reveal how The Turk operated. Allgaier. He was regarded as a chess patron and kept several chess masters in his kingdom. but the team said he was too small.Chess Trivia
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Allen. Johann (1763-1823) Author of the first chess book published in German in 1795.ChessCentral. chess master in al-Mutamid’s court. who wrote The Life of Philidor. in a book on the first American Chess Congress. Allen. George (1808-1876) The grand-nephew of Ethan Allen. musician and chess-player. He served as quartermaster accountant in the Austrian army. the accumulation of excessive watery fluid outside the cells of the body. www. in 1858. al-Mutamid Moorish poet-king who reigned over Seville in the late 11th century.

and a salver. American Chess Congress The first American Chess Congress was won by Paul Morphy in 1857. In 1939 it merged with the National Chess Federation to form the USCF. The first American chess tournament was held in New York in 1843.com
. First prize was a silver service consisting of a pitcher. al-Rashid Caliph of Baghdad who favored chess and granted liberal pensions to chess masters in his court around 800 A. www.Chess Trivia
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played a game of chess for the stake of Seville. Alfonso kept the chess set and board. Ibn-Ammar won and the city was spared from siege. four goblets. America The first mention of chess in America occurred in 1641 in Esther Singleton’s history of Dutch settlers. American Chess Federation Forerunner of the US Chess Federation.D.ChessCentral.

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American Revolution During the American Revolution. He has been among the top 5 players in the world for many years. In 1995 he played Kasparov for the PCA world championship and lost. there was a strong effort by the colonists to rename the pieces to Governor.ChessCentral. General. The general was so immersed in a chess game that he put the note in his pocket unopened.com
. Anand. His 1998 FIDE rating is 2795. www. In 1998 he played Karpov for the FIDE world championship and lost. American Women’s Congress The first American Women’s Congress was held in New York in 1906. There it was found when he was mortally wounded in the subsequent battle. A boy gave General Rahl of the British Army a note from a spy that George Washington was about to cross the Delaware and attack. Colonel. and Pioneer. Captain. Major. Viswanathan (1969.) Indian Grandmaster (1988) who won the World Junior Championship in 1987. second only to Kasparov (2815).

including 8 times in a row. He became ill and was unable to play his final round. he would have made the final norm necessary for the Grandmaster title. Terry One of the hostages held by terrorists during the Iran crises. Eric (1904-1938) Won the Danish Championship 12 times. In 1958 he score 84% in the Munich Olympiad. He came closer to the Grandmaster title than any other player. www. Andersson. He missed the Grandmaster title because of this. Even if he had played and lost. He credits chess with helping him survive the ordeal.Chess Trivia
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Andersen. Anderson. Gerald (1893-1983) British chess problemist who became an International Judge of Composition in 1960 and an International Master in Composition in 1975. Anderson.com
. He was the last person to play Alekhine. Frank (1928-1980) Three-time Canadian Champion and International Master (1954).ChessCentral.

behind Paulsen.ChessCentral. This is the only tournament in chess history organized to commemorate a competitor. In 1851 A. That same year A. his obituary was 19 pages long. Adolf (1818-1879)
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Strongest player in the world between 1859 and 1866. Anderssen was recognized as the srongest chess player in the world.com
. He tied for second. In 1877 a group of German chess fans organized a tournament to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Anderssen’s learning the chess moves. Anderson was recognized as the strongest checker player in the world. www. When he died.Chess Trivia
Anderssen.

Arabic The first references of chess in Arabic occur in 720 in romantic poems by Kutaiyira Azzata and al-Farazdaq. Araiza.) Won the Mexican Chess Championship 15 times in a row. winning 268. at age 19. and Baidaq (foot-soldier). The pieces were called Shah (king).Chess Trivia
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Andersson.) Swedish Grandmaster (1972). was an arbiter at the World Candidates tournament. and losing 2 in 15 hours and 23 minutes. Faras (horse). The Arabicized name of the Persian Chatrang became shatranj. Firz (minister or queen). Jose (1897.ChessCentral. FIDE created the International Arbiter title in www. Ulf (1951. Rukh (chariot or boat). Arbiter The director of a tournament or match. In 1996 he set a world record by playing 310 boards simultaneously. drawing 40. who. Fil (elephant or bishop).com
. The youngest arbiter of a major tournament was Sophia Gorman.

French. B. Russian. and borrowed for chess. He won the Marshall Chess Club Championship in 1993.com
. (1650?-1710?) Swiss author of the Traite du Ieu Royal des Eschets. Ashtapada A 64-square uncheckered gaming board used in India as early as the 2nd century B. German. Art There are at least 20 paintings called “Checkmate. Asperling.) First African-American International Master (1993). and Spanish). An arbiter must have a working knowledge of two official FIDE languages (English. or the Traite de Lausanne.” Ashley. Maurice (1966. It is the last book which allows the medieval king’s leap and the first book to classify openings in an orderly way. in 1690.ChessCentral.
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1951.

to become the champion of the known world in the 10th century. He wrote a book of chess problems of which two survive today. as-Suli (880-946) Turkish player who defeated al-Mawardi. His superiority was recognized up to Renaissance times. founded in 1884. and before long was beating them all. Association The Scottish Chess Association is the oldest in the world. Peru and learned chess by watching his guards play.ChessCentral. It is said that a certain Spanish captain hated him for this and had him murdered. the resident master of the caliph al-Muktafi.com
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as-Razi Champion of Persia in 847 after defeating al-Aldi in the presence of the caliph Matawakkil. He was imprisoned in Cajamarca. This informawww. Atahualpa (1500-1533) 12th and last Inca emperor of Peru who was imprisoned by Francisco Pizarro and the Spanish conquistadors in 1533.

ChessCentral.S. www. Ault. Robin (1941-1994) The first person to win the U.com
. 1925). He also lost all 11 games at the 1959-60 US Championship. 1924. The main character is a man named Fischer who dreams of becoming world chess champion and buying clothes from the best tailors in the world. Atkins. Junior Championship three times (1959-1961). Auto da Fe Novel written by Nobel Prize winner for Literature. 7 times in a row (1905-1911. He was known as ‘the little Steinitz’.Chess Trivia
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tion is preserved in a letter from Don Gaspar de Espinosa (1533) and the autobiography of Don Alonso Enriquez de Guzman (1518-1543). Only Penrose has won it more often (10 times). The book was written in 1935. Elias Canetti. Henry (1872-1955) British schoolmaster who won the British Championship 9 times out of 11 appearances.

Fine. Yuri (1922. Avigad-Vernon. followed by Hooper’s Ajeeb (1868). a Dutch broadcasting company. Averbakh. which sponsored the world’s strongest tournament held up to that time in 1938. He was the Soviet Chess Federation president from 1972 to 1977. 237 days) to beat an expert in a rated tournament. The first automaton was Kempelen’s The Turk (1769). His daughter married Grandmaster Mark Taimanov.) Youngest person (7 years. Botvinnik. www.com
. AVRO Algemeene Veerenigde Radio Oemrop. Ariel (1987.) Endgame expert and grandmaster who did not know about the proper rule of castling while playing in an international tournament.Chess Trivia
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Automatons Machines that give the illusion of playing chess.ChessCentral. then Gumpel’s Mephisto (1878). The top eight players in the world participated (Keres.

hence. came ahead of Capablanca. for the first time in his life. the official challenger who was expected to play a world championship match with Alekhine. for the first time in his life.ChessCentral. came last without a single vicctory in 14 rounds.
www. and Flohr). the word Axedrez. Alekhine.Chess Trivia
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Alekhine. Flohr. fell below 50%. Capablanca. The Portuguese player Damiano wrote a Spanish book suggesting chess was invented by Xerxes and should be named after Xerxes. Capablanca. Axedrez The Spanish word for chess.com
. He lost four games in this event. First place was equivalent to $550. Reshevsky. Euwe.

Baden Baden 1925 First international tournament in Germany after World War I. 2 months. Adolf Anderssen was declared the winner. but the players had the option of using hour-glasses. He was the youngest FIDE master at age 10 and won the World Under 12 championship in 1995.com
. Vladimir (1936.000 francs.) In 1997 Bacrot became the youngest Grandmaster ever at the age of 14 years. In 1960 he took 4th place in the USSR champiwww. Baden Baden 1870 First international tournament in Germany and the first to be interrupted by war (Franco-Prussian war).) Latvian player who became a Grandmaster in 1978 at the age of 42. Etienne (1983. Alekhine was the winner.ChessCentral.Chess Trivia
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B
Bacrot. First place was 3. Bagirov. This tournament was the first to introduce chess clocks.

In 1976 he won an international tournament in Odessa. He won the Philippine championship 6 times. performed for Louis XIV of France. where skaters played out the Morphy . USSR.Duke of Brunswick game.Chess Trivia
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onship. He was a former trainer of Kasparov. In 1998 he won the 8th World Senior Chess Championship. The first ballet on ice was included in the pantomine. was performed at the Paris World Exhibition. by Tim Rice. Sinbad the Sailer (1953). A ballet called Checkmate. Rosendo (1941-1998) Philippine Grandmaster and considered Asia’s best player during the 1960s. was produced. In 1986 the musical Chess. www. composed by Sir Arthur Bliss and choreographed by Ninette de Valois in 1937. held in Austria. It was only the 2nd time in 35 years a foreigner won an international event in the USSR.com
. Balinas. The only other foreigner who won in Russia was world champion Capablanca.ChessCentral. Ballet The first ballet with a chess theme was Ballet des Echecs.

He defeated the U. He committed suicide by jumping out of an upper window of his boarding house in Berlin where he lived in poverty. leaving the opponent with a bare King.S. and his leading challenger. checker champion who was also a chess master. in 1932. Baring Chess A chess game where there is no checkmate and the game is won by the player who is able to capture all his opponent’s pieces. Banks. Kurt Von (1861-1924) Strongest German player of the late 19th century and Grandmaster strength. Janos (1892-1980) Winner of the first international correspondence tournament. Frank Marshall. at the Chicago Tournament in 1926.ChessCentral. chess champion.Chess Trivia
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Balogh. Bardeleben.com
. This game was played as early as the 9th century and some think that the baring game was the original game of chess. Newell (1887-1977) U.S. www. Isaac Kashdan.

Victor (1914. He was a prosecutor in Stalin’s NKVD (secret police) and a Colonel under Lavrenti Beria. Baturinsky. causing his death. Thomas (1825-1874) Thomas Barnes scored more wins than anyone else against Paul Morphy. Reuben Fine took only 3 months to write it.S. Basic Chess Endings Best known endgame book. Beatles In 1966 the U. the secret police chief who was later executed by Nikita Kruschev.ChessCentral. He went on a diet and lost 130 pounds in 10 months.Chess Trivia
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Barnes.) Chief of Karpov’s delegation during the early years as world champion. Open was held at the Seattle World’s Fair Grounds. Battel. Jack (1909-1985) Former executive editor of Chess Review from 1948 to 1969. The Beatles were on hand to give a conwww. winning 8 games and losing 19.com
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The hundreds of Beatle fans. The Prince stored it at his residence in Milan.000 francs (equivalent to $60. assumed the Beatles were inside. Beauharnois. is an avid chess player and supporter.Chess Trivia
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cert. Ringo Starr and John Lennon played chess. www. seeing the hall shrouded by the drapes.000) in 1811. Yoko Ono. Frideswide (1843-1919) First woman to write a chess column and the first woman to win a prize as a composer of chess problems (1882). Anjelina Winner of the 1996 US Women’s Chess Championship. Beechey. They began pounding on the windows until someone opened the drapes to reveal a chess tournament was taking place. He purchased the Turk from Maelzel for 30. Lennon’s widow. Belakovskaya. At the Open the tournament director drew the curtains over the playing hall. He sold the Turk back to Maelzel in 1817 for the same price. Prince Eugene (1781-1824) Step-son of Napoleon and Viceroy of Italy.ChessCentral.com
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running on a PDP 11/23. However. Chess Master. BELLE won the 1980 World Computer Championship in Linz. BELLE was created by Ken Thompson and Joe Condon. Alexander (1953.S. The tournament was funded by Yugoslav Airlines with $100.com
. a program to prevent illegal export of high techwww. In 1982 Ken Thompson traveled to Moscow and thought BELLE was traveling with him in a crate to compete in a tournament. in 1983.S.Chess Trivia
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Belgrade GMA 1989 The Belgrade Grandmaster’s Association 1989 tournament had 98 grandmasters participating. Customs Service confiscated the chess computer at Kennedy Airport as part of Operation Exodus. BELLE First computer awarded the title of U.ChessCentral. the U.000 prize fund. The winner was Yugoslav Grandmaster Krunoslav Hulak.) Russian Grandmaster (1975) who won the World Junior Championship in 1973 and the USSR Championship in 1974. Beliavsky. This was the strongest Swiss of all time. a world record for number of GMs in one tournament.

Joel (1964.S.“it’s like time trouble. 1981). Open Championship (1985). Jana Malypetrova Hartston Miles (1947. 1982). Junior High School (1978). and U.Chess Trivia
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nology items to the Soviets.ChessCentral. Benedict. U.) Top British woman player. Bellin. She is also an anesthesiologist which she says is an appropriate specialization for a chessplayer . He was a master at 13 and became a www. Clare (1871-1961) Granddaughter of James Fenimore Cooper who moved to Switzerland and became a chess patron of a team tournament of European countries.S.” Formerly married to Bill Hartston and Tony Miles. It took over a month and a $600 fine to retrieve BELLE from customs. and High School Championships (1980. The first Clare Benedict International Team Tournament was held in 1953 and won by the Dutch. you only have four minutes.) Winner of the National Elementary (1976).com
.S. Championship (1987 and 1997). Junior Championship (1980. U. Benjamin.

Benko.S. He won the Hungaian national championship at age 20. He became a Correspondence Grandmaster at the age of 77.Chess Trivia
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Grandmaster in 1986.a record.com
. In 1970 he yielded his interzonal place at Palma de Mallorca to Bobby Fischer. He was secretly involved in the 1956 Hungarian revolt. Bergraser. Pal (1928. He became a Grandmaster in 1958. Berlin Pleiades The seven stars of German chess: www. He has won or tied for 1st in 8 US Opens .) French-born Hungarian player. He was permitted to play first board on Hungary’s team in the 1957 Student Olympiad in Iceland where he defected to the U. He assisted the IBM DEEPER BLUE team which defeated Kasparov in 1997.ChessCentral. Volf (1904-1986) Won the Franch chess championship in 1957 and 1966. who went on to become World Champion. He spent a year and a half in a Hungarian political prison.

) Winner of the 5th world correspondence championship (1965-68). This was the first time that a World Champion had ever been www.Chess Trivia
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Paul von Bilguer. barrister and judge. painter and chess professional.com
. painter. Berliner. collector (over 2000 books). Hans (1929. Prussian Ambassador and chess book. He never played in a tournament or match. and his winning percentage (87. professor of mathematics and Pleiades founder.5%) was also the greatest of any World Champion. In 1979 he developed a backgammon playing program that defeated the reigning World Backgammon Champion. the most influential chess book for 90 years. Bernard Horwitz. Ludwig Bledow. Dr. Carl Mayet. civil servant. Carl Schorn.ChessCentral. Baron Tassilo von der Lasa. Army Lieutenant and author of the Handbuch. Wilhelm Hanstein. His 3 point margin of victory was the greatest margin of victory ever achieved in a World Championship final round.

he asked whether he was the famous master. Not satisfied with Bernstein’s affirmative reply. Discovering the name of Ossip Bernstein. Bernstein.ChessCentral. Bernstein’s son was President Eisenhower’s official interpreter because he spoke almost every European language. he was still playing in international tournaments. he would be shot. Bernstein won in short order and was released. If Bernstein lost or drew. a superior officer asked to see the list of prisoners’ names. He escaped on a British ship and settled in Paris. correspondence Grandmaster. Ossip (1882-1962) In 1918 Ossip Bernstein was arrested in Odessa by the Cheka and ordered shot by a firing squad just because he was a legal advisor to bankers.Chess Trivia
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beaten by a computer. Bertl Von Massow Medal Medal for distinguished service to international correspondence chess.
www.S. As the firing squad lined up.com
. he made him play a game with him. He was the first U. At age 74.

www. 12. 4. 9. he wife won the Hungarian women’s championship. 12. The first best game prize was awarded to Gunsburg for his game against Mason. 15.com
. Istvan (1932. Koshnitsky. he made only 125 moves in 109 minutes in this 11 round master event.000 copies. Thus. 17. 13. 5. First published in 1942. The old record as youngest master has held by Jordy Mont-Reynaud. 6 months. it had sold 438. New York 1889. 14.) Hungarian Grandmaster (1962). 12.ChessCentral. Vinay In 1995 he became America’s youngest master at the age of 10 years.Chess Trivia
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Best Game Prize A prize for the best game of a tournament or match. drew his next 10 games in 13. 26. by its 24th edition in 1977. When he won the Hungarian championship. J. taking 5. respectively. he had a bye in the first round. Best-selling chess book Perhaps the best selling chess book is Chess Made Easy by C. Bhat. In 1979 at an international tournament in Skupsk. 7. 18. and 5 minutes. and 9 moves. 12. Bilek. Purdy and G.

) US champion in 1954. and 1959. Joseph Henry (1841-1924)
www. He was awarded the Grandmaster title in 1956. He has been known not to take cash prizes that he has won if the tournament organizer was taking a loss on a tournament. 1957.com
. Blackburne. Bisguier. Winner of the US Open in 1950.Chess Trivia
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Billah The Caliph of Bagdad who composed the first chess problem in 840.ChessCentral. Arthur (1929.

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His nickname was the Black Death. During the temperance movement in England he declared that whisky drinking improved one’s chess because alcohol cleared the brain and he tried to prove that theory as often as possible. After losing to Steinitz in a match. mate in 290 moves. He tied for first in the British Championship of 1914 at the age of 72. Otto (1860-1939) Credited for creating the longest chess problem.000 games of chess in his career. he threw him out of a window. the students thought to gain the advantage by placing a bottle of whisky and a glass at each end of the playing oval. In the end he emptied both bottles and won all his games in record time. given to him by a comment in the tournament book of Vienna 1873.com
. www. Luckily for Steinitz that they were on the first floor. During a simultaneous exhibition at Cambridge University. It is estimated he played 100. Blathy.ChessCentral. He was once arrested as a spy because he sent chess moves in the mail and it was thought the the moves were coded secrets. He was also known for his temper.

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Bledow. In 1968 the United States had only 25 blind chessplayers in its Braile Chess Association. Bonham.000 blind players in its Brail Chess Association. Blindfold checkers Blindfold checkers is more difficult than blindfold chess. Bonham. James Slagle won the first U. Ludwig (1795-1846) Founder of the first German magazine. in 1846.com
. Championship for the blind in 1971. The American master Albert Landrin (1923-) participated in the World Chess Championship for the Blind and played all his games from memory. The greatest number played blindfold simultaneously is www. without use of a board.S. Blind Chessplayers In 1950 Sir. The first World Blind Correspondence Championship began in 1955 and was won by R. The International Braille Association was formed by blind player R. The Soviet Union had 150. Yugoslavia). T. Deutsche Schachzeitung. Thomas was the first blind player to play in a chess Olympiad (Dubrovnik.ChessCentral.

playing two games blindfold in Florence in 1265. but received a reprieve on all occasions. he was sentenced to death for killing his mother. One newspaper wrote ‘This exertion of Mr.ChessCentral. a Muslim.Chess Trivia
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28. His death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment and the state stopped paying postage. That record stood for 74 years. He was scheduled for execution 6 times.com
. Blindfold chess Buzecca. In 1857 Louis Paulsen played four games blindfold simultaneously. accompanied by a www. While on death row. The uniformity of checkers makes it harder to reach distinctive positions.) Author of The Tactical Grob. was the first blindfold player in Europe. Claude (1937. he played over 1200 postal games. The postage was paid by the State of Virginia. Once the 29th highest USCF ranked OTB player in the country. Bloodgood. It took 518 years before three games were played blindfold. by Philidor in 1783. He was allowed to play in OTB chess tournaments. Philidor’s abilities appear one of the greatest of which the human memory is susceptible. (see simultaneous).

Milko (1931. Boris (1884-1947) Born in Volkovisk. When he was recaptured after several weeks at large. He died in Moscow in 1947.com
. He was a USCF tournament director and active in the California State Chess Associawww. In one event. he escaped for several weeks after he and another chessplayer overpowered the guard. his correspondence privelege was taken away from him at Virginia State Penitentiary. Blumenfeld. Humphrey Bogart hustled strangers at 5-minute chess for 50 cents a game in chess parlors in New York Times Square. He became a student of chess psychology and received a doctorate for a thesis on the nature of blunders in chess. Russia who invented the Blumenfeld Counter Gambit. Bobotsov. Bogart.) First Bulgarian to be awarded the title of International Grandmaster (1961).Chess Trivia
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guard. thinking the chess notation were secret codes. Humphrey (1899-1957) Before becoming a movie star. In 1943 the FBI prevented him from playing postal chess.ChessCentral.

and then chose a move that lost a piece. Lauren Bacall. He made 75 films and chess appears in several of his movies.Chess Trivia
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tion. appeared on the cover of Chess Review in 1945 playing chess with Charles Boyer.com
. He once drew a game against Reshevsky in a simultaneous exhibition. He and his wife. Bogoljubov. Efim (1889-1952)
Once spent over two hours over his 24th move against Steiner. Berlin 1928.ChessCentral. His most famous statement was “When I’m White www.

In 1574 he defeated Ruy Lopez at the court of King Phillip II of Spain. Bolbochan. He later gained his freedom back. His brother Jacobo (1906-1984) won the Argentina championship in 1932 and 1933. Paolo (1528-1598) One of the leading players of the 16th century. in Naples in 1598. He won the Argentina championship in 1946 and 1948. Boi. He was poisoned. Julio (1920-1996) Argentine Grandmaster who received the title in 1977 at the age of 57.com
.ChessCentral. www. He played chess for his master that brought in a lot of money. When I’m Black I win because I’m Bogoljubov. probably by jealous rivals. In 1576 he was taken prisoner and sold as a slave to a Turk. In 1549 he defeated Pope Paul III in a chess match. The Pope offered to make him cardinal which he refused. The King showered him with great rewards including an official appointment in Sicily that paid 500 crowns a year.” He died in Triberg. and became an International Master in 1965 at the age of 59.Chess Trivia
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I win because I’m White. Germany after concluding a simultaneous chess exhibition.

published in St. Peterburg in 1791.com
. The title was Pravila dlia Shashechnoi Igry (Rules for the Game of Chess). It went through more than 100 editions in ten languages. the title used the word for checkers instead of the word for chess (shakmatnoi). Analysis of the Muzio Gambit by Kassin and Cochrane. However. The first chess book printed in Russia was a translation of Benjamin Franklin’s Morals of Chess. The first chess book entirely devoted to the analysis of a single opening. This was just a reprint of Philidor’s book published in 1796. The first chess book published in America was Chess Made Easy by James Humphreys.ChessCentral. was published in India in 1829.Chess Trivia
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Book. chess The oldest European book on chess is Juegos Axedrez. was published in Augsburg in 1472. dados y tablas written in the 13th century. printed in Philadelphia in 1802. The first book to explain chess strategy was L’Analyze des Eschecs. The first hardback book dealing with chess. by Philidor in 1749. A book was published in German www. published in Boston in 1805. The first original American book was The Elements of Chess. Dass Goldin Spil.

On the last page were two words. keep your mouth shut. the first to die from sniper fire while playing chess. 1958-60. a person was shot and killed while playing a chess game in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Book play A tournament was held in London with the positions of the knights and bishops reversed. Bosnia-Herzegovina In 1993. This was in 1868. Halt’s Maul. The first book review was Chess by Twiss in 1787.com
. Advice to Spectators at Chess Tournaments. All the pages were blank except the last. He never played a “friendly” or leisure game of chess in his life. He had a PhD (1951) in Electrical Engineering and worked on www. Botvinnik.Chess Trivia
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with the title. Mikhail (1911-1995) Former world champion (1948-57.ChessCentral. 1961-63) who was the only man to win the title three times. He played every world champion of this century and the early trainer of Karpov and Kasparov. in order to avoid book play.

a silver cup. The Nickname of Giovanni Leonardo. He was one of the pioneering leaders of hypermodern chess. Brilliancy prize A prize that contains a brilliant combination in a tournament or match. Boy.ChessCentral. Breyer. because of his youthful appearance. The first brilliancy of a match game. 300 francs. was awarded to Steinitz against Tchigorin in the 8th world championship game in 1889.Chess Trivia
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computer chess programs.com
. he set a new blindfold record of 25 opponents (won 15. went to Henry Bird for his victory against James Mason in New York in 1876. The first brilliancy prize for a tournament. He received $5. a leading player of the 16th century. Gyula (1894-1921) Hungarian of Grandmaster strength. lost 3) in 1921. www.000 for winning his first world championship. drew 7.

1881 it became the British Chess Magazine Bronstein. written by a Winchester monk.ChessCentral.com
. British Chess Association (BCA) The first national body to promote chess. David (1924. It began as a monthly chess magazine in 1872 called Huddersfield College Magazine.) Winner of the first Interzonal in 1948 at Saltsjobaden who survivied an assasination attack during the tournament. Suddenly. a Lithuanian made a lunge at Bronstein to kill www. while Lord Tennyson was the Vice President. On January 1. British Chess Magazine First chess magazine to complete 100 years of continuous publication (1881 to 1981).Chess Trivia
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Britain The first British reference to chess is the Latin poem de Shahiludo. Winston Churchill’s father was once the President of the BCA. founded in 1884. On the last day Bronstein was playing Tartakover.

Several spectators grabbed him.com
. Rowena M. Bruce. 1981.5-5. Walter (1949. Bronstein won the game and the Interzonal with a 13. He wanted to murder all Russians because he claimed the Russians were responsible for sending his sister to Siberia and murdering her.5 score. 1983). 1975. (1919.Chess Trivia
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him. 1977. He became a Grandmaster in 1970 (representing Australia) and is the founder of the World Blitz Chess Association (WBCA). Brother-sister The first brother-sister to tie for first place in a tournament was Harold and Bernadette Reddik in Chicago in 1982.) Six-time US champion (1974.ChessCentral. 1980. First place prize for the first interzonal was $550. In the Plymouth 1938 tournament she played world woman champion Menchik in www. Browne.) The only player to have played two world champions in a tournament on the same day.

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the morning and world champion Alekhine in the afternoon for rounds 2 and 3. www.S. government would not grant him a visa to Hungary. Bronstein and Boleslavsky tied for first in this 10 player event. Reshevsky was invited to play but the U. Budget The annual FIDE budgest is $150. Henry (1821-1862) Winner of the first modern chess tournament.ChessCentral. Bronstein later played Boleslavsky in a playoff match to determine the world championship challenger and won. from 1937 to 1969. the Divan tourney of 1849. Budapest 1950 First Candidates’ tournament. Buckle.000. He was a British historian who could speak seven languages and read twelve languages. She has won the British Ladies’ Championship 11 times.com
. The annual chess budget of the Russian Chess Federation is $175 million. He died of typhoid fever in Damascus.

Spain chess tournament. Butrimov. Ivan (1782-1861) Published the first Russian chess book. Top Grandmasters from around the world have been paid as much as $50. He was the illegitimate son of Pope Gregory XIII. Giacomo Duke of Sora and leading patron of chess in the 17th century.Chess Trivia
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Bugojno 1986 First Category 16 tournament ever held. Buoncompagno.000 to play on a team (14-20 games a season). Karpov was the winner in this Yugoslavian Super-Grandmaster tournament. Bundesliga German national chess team tournament that started in 1975. with an average rating of 2628. Bull fighting In 1976. www. during the Palma de Mallorca.com
.ChessCentral. Mikhail Tal became the first Russian to oppose a bull in a bull-fighting arena. in 1821.

and 1966. He finished 3rd at the 1973 Leningrad Interzonal and became only the 3rd American (after Fischer and Benko) to qualify for the Candidates Match. He won or tied for first in the US Open in 1960.) Philosophy professor who gave up teaching to become a chess professional. Robert (1928. 1963.
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Byrne. He received the Grandmaster title in 1964. He won the US Championship in 1972.

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. House of Representatives resulted in a draw.) Spanish journalist and International Master who was censured by FIDE for writing a letter in 1991 to New in Chess. Calabrese. Caissa The muse or goddess of chess. Calvo. a letter that was interpreted by many Latin Ameriwww. in a poem by Sir William Jones in 1763. originally a wood-nymph.S. The Nickname of Gioacchino Greco. Ricardo (1943.Chess Trivia
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C
Cable Match The first cable match (moves transmitted by telegraph) was between the British Chess Club and the Manhattan Chess Club in 1895. In 1897 a cable match between the British House of Commons and the U.ChessCentral. 17th century Italian player.

He graduated from Brown University. When he was elected FIDE President in 1982 the entire FIDE staff and FIDE secretary resigned in protest.Chess Trivia
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can readers as racist. www. and was the top board for the Philippines in the 1960 Chess Olympiad. He wrote of an unnamed South American journalist who “corrupted” young people.com
. The traditional series began in 1873.ChessCentral. Camel The name used for the bishop in Tibet and Mongolia. the 1958 Olympiad in Munich. Cambridge-Oxford match Longest running annual match in chess. Canada The Canadian representative to an international chess event got to the tournament by a Track and Field Club that raised the money through bingo. Campomanes. Florencio (1927.) First non-European elected FIDE President. He played Board 2 for the Philippines in the 1956 Olympiad in Moscow.

Raoul (1888-1942)
www.ChessCentral. The king had a Danish earl murdered when the earl overturned a chessboard after the King made a bad move and tried to take it back. He learned the game of chess during a pilgrammage to Rome. Jose. Capablanca.Chess Trivia
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Canute King of Denmark and England in the 11th century.com
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In 1913 Capablanca obtained a post in the Cuban Foreign Office with the title of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary General from the Government of Cuba to the World at Large. and lost only one game in hundreds of games played during simultaneous exhibitions. he spent most of his time at the Manhattan Chess Club. He was New York State champion in 1910. He did not lose a single game from 1916 to 1924. her family had him demoted to the post of Commercial Attache. winning all the others. After his divorce from his first wife. Two years later he dropped out of Columbia University and dedicated most of his time to chess.com
. “Why should I give her publicity?” Capa lost only 36 games out of 567 in his whole life.ChessCentral.S. saying. He died while www. He once refused to pose with a beautiful film star. Capablanca never had a chess set at home.Chess Trivia
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Sent to Columbia University from Cuba in 1906 to study chemical engineering. He once had the mayor of Havana clear a tournament room so that no one would see him resign a game (against Marshall in 1913). In 1908-09 he toured the U.

The game took over 15 hours and lasted 121 moves. Carew. At age 89 he played the Turk at Baltimore in 1827 and won. took personal charge of the funeral arrangements. President of Cuba. Charles The last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence.Chess Trivia
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watching a chess game at the Manhattan chess club. Carlsbad 1923. Neil (1968. Carroll. Carr. General Batista.ChessCentral. played by Chajes-Grunfeld.com
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www. Capture The longest delay of a capture of a piece or pawn is 57 moves.) Youngest player to beat a grandmaster in a clock simultaneous exhibition. Lady Jane (1797-1901) First chessplayer to live in three centuries. In 1978 at the age of 10 he beat a grandmaster.

It is a translation of a book by Jacobus de Cessolis. An original book is worth over $100. You had to play R-KB1 on one move and K-KN1 on the next move.ChessCentral. in 1475. Georges Pseudonym for Dr. oldest brother of King Edward. The Game and Playe of the Chesse.Chess Trivia
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Carter. Castling As late as 1561 castling was two moves. 1966 when White castled on the 46th move.000. The book consisted of 72 pages. Savielly Tartakower during World War II when he was a lieutenant in the Free French army. William (1422-1491) Publisher of the second book to be printed in English. Caxton. The book was dedicated to George. Belgium. The longest delayed castling is believed to be in the game Bobotsov-Ivkov. with no illustrations and printed in Bruges.
www. published by Caxton in 1474.com
. Duke of Clarence. The first printed book in English is The Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye.

www. Censorship In 1935 the US played England a 1002 board correspondence match. and drew 100 games. At the time. The CCLA had the first numerical rating of players in 1940. It was stopped in 1941 when the British Government’s Board of Censors thought that the chess notation was some kind of code which offered too much opportunities for secret messages.Chess Trivia
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CCA Continental Chess Association. lost 203. The Chess Correspondent the oldest national magazine in the US. It is the oldest postal chess organization in America and second oldest in the world. It was founded in 1909 by three correspondence players. founded by Bill Goichberg.com
. The US had won 223. CCLA Correspondence Chess League of America. there were 562 games finished.ChessCentral. It publishes the largest correspondence chess magazine in the world.

ChessCentral. This is the best known of all chess moralities.” He served as President of the CCLA from 1909 to 1917.Chess Trivia
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Cessolis. The parables deal with all sorts and conditions of men. the Russians linked Spassky’s erratic play with Fischer’s chair. Chadwick.
www. Nothing unusual was found. The Icelandic organization put a 24-hour police guard around the chair while chemical and x-ray tests were performed on the chair. allegorically represented in their various ranks by chess pieces.com
. Chairs and Chess During the 1972 Fischer-Spassky match in Rekjavik. Stanley (1870-1943) CCLA’s first president and considered the “Father of CCLA. Jacobus De Dominican monk who wrote De Moribus Hominum ed de Officiis Nobilium Super Ludo Scaccorum (On the Customs of Men and Their Noble Actions with Reference to the Game of Chess).

described the invention of chess to the King of Pergamon in 200 B. Chaucer His poem Book of the Duchesse.C. His sister. He uses a peg set made for the blind. Alex and Angela In 1986 Alex Chang won the National Elementary School Championship. took 2nd place. it was mandatory to announce a check. Ray Ray Charles. Check Up until the early 20th century. learned chess in 1965 after being busted and hospitalized for heroin addiction. dating back to the 7th century. Up until the late 19th century. The Sanskrit name means quadripartite. the legendary Genius of Soul.com
. He learned chess in the hospital where he went cold turkey. Chaturanga The earliest chess precurser that can be clearly defined.Chess Trivia
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Chang. Angela.ChessCentral. it was www. Charles. written in 1369.

The world chess champion was A. Anderson. Newell Banks was the only American master of checkers and chess. 10 games of checkers. if the King and other piece were simultaneously attacked by a piece. He could play 10 games of chess. In 1969 in Tallinn. At one time.Chess Trivia
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mandatory to say ‘check to the queen’ or ‘gardez’ when she was attacked. and a game of billiards simultaneously. The first checkers column appeared in the New York Clipper in 1856 alongside the chess column. Checkmate The medieval custom of checkmate entitled the winner to a double stake. an unnanounced check could be ignored.
www. Up until the early 19th century.com
. Anderssen.ChessCentral. the Westerinen-Tal game had 38 checks in a row. The record for simultaneous blindfold checkers games is 28. it was customary to announce the fact by saying check to both pieces. Checkers In 1851 the world checker champion was A.

Chessboard The first chessboard of alternating light and dark squares appear in Europe in 1090. Cheron.000) was donated to the victims of the nuclear disaster in Chernobyl.ChessCentral. Chess the Musical Most expensive musical play ever put together. www.Chess Trivia
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Chernobyl The purse from the Karpov-Kasparov 1986 London-Leningrad match ($900.com
. costing over $4 million in 1986. The musical was written by Tim Rice and music by Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus (formerly of ABBA). Andre (1895-1980) One of the great endgame analysts and study composers of all time. He created the longest problem solution to have all checks in it. taking 69 moves. He played Board 1 for France in the 1927 Olympiad. The USSR Championship has being played in Kiev at the time of the Chernobyl accident.

Chess Oscar Awarded to the outstanding player of the year and decided by votes of the International Association of Chess Journalists. Chess Machine Nickname of Capablanca. Massachusetts. Chessplayers The World Chess Federation estimates there are 550 million chessplayers.ChessCentral.com
. Chess Life Chess Life magazine first appeared as the official publication of the USCF in 1946. The 1988 chess oscar went to Anand.Chess Trivia
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Chess City of the Year In 1985 the Chess City of the Year was Foxboro. It has no chess club. www. The Oscar is actually a statuette of a woman under an umbrella. Chess is my Life Title of an autobiography by both Karpov and Korchnoi.

Chinese chess is played on a board 9 squares by 8 and the pieces move on the intersections of the lines rather than the squares. unknown any-
. He was a Georgian career diplomat who served as former Ambassador to Kenya and assigned to the Soviet consulate in San Francisco and embassies in London and New Delhi. Trevor Stowe.Chess Trivia
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Chess Sets In 1971 a chess set landed an antiques dealer. One of the pieces as a cannon. The dealer had to pay $132 in fines and court costs. Chikvaidze Alexander (1932.) Replaced former cosmonaut Vitaly Sevastionov in 1986 as President of the Soviet Chess Federation. China The Chinese Emperor Wen-ti executed two foreign chessplayers after learning that one of the pieces was called “Emperor. Each of the 32 pieces showed couples in sexual positions. so that the actual playing area is 10 by 9. in court in London for indecent exhibition while on display in the window.” He was upset that his title of Emperor could be associated with a mere game and forbade the game.

www. Christiansen. In 1977 he was awarded the title.) The only player to become an International Grandmaster without ever being an International Master. The Chess Association of China was formed in 1962.com
. 1983). He is also the first junior high school player to win the National High School Championship in 1971. Larry (1956. He was the co-founder of the Oxford University Chess Club. Chess was not listed as a competitive sport in China until 1956.ChessCentral. The first international tournament ever held in China was in 1980.Chess Trivia
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where else. He took chess lessons from Zukertort and Steinitz. Lord Tennyson was the President of the British Chess Federation. He is a past winner of the US Championship (1980. Churchill. Lord Randolph (1849-1895) Winston Churchill’s father was elected vice president of the British Chess Federation in 1885. It didn’t have its first championship tournament until 1974.

Capablanca achieved perfect scores three times: New York 1910 (7-0). sandglasses were used.com
. and New York 1914 (11-0). Clock Chess The first mechanical chess clock was invented by Thomas Wilson in 1883. New York 1913 (13-0).Chess Trivia
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Ciocaltea.ChessCentral. defeated Taimanov 6-0 and Larsen 6-0 in the Candidates matches. Victor (1932-1983) Romanian chess player who became an International Master in 1957 and took 21 years to become a Grandmaster in 1978. He won the Romanian championship 8 times during 1952-1979.
www. Sandglasses were first used in London in 1862. Prior to that. Fischer won the 1963 US Championship 11-0. The first electronic chess club was manufactured in Kiev in 1964. Clean Score A perfect 100% score. The present day push-button clock was first perfected by Veenhoff in 1900.

When war broke out. Chess The world’s first chess club was organized in Italy in 1550. is the Labate Chess Centre in Anaheim. California with about 400 members. founded in London. British masters Harry Golombek. www. The first chess club in England was Slaughter’s Coffee House. Codebreakers and Chess During World War II some of the top chessplayers were also code breakers.ChessCentral. Milner-Barry sent out an alarm to the rest of the ship when he thought he spotted a U-boat. Russia’s first chess club was organized by Tchigorin in 1880. founded in 1877.com
. England in 1715. It turned out to be a porpoise. The oldest chess club in Europe is the Zurich Chess Club.S. O’D. the British chess team had just qualified for the finals in the Buenos Aires Olympiad. Alexander were on the team which broke the Nazi Enigma code. founded in 1809. they were ordered home on the next ship out.Chess Trivia
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Club. During one watchkeeping at night. The oldest chess club in the U. The largest chess club in the U. In September 1939.S. is the Manhattan Chess Club. Stuart Milner-Barry and H.

College The first international tournament restricted to college students was held in Liverpool. Lewis Lewis Cohen never lost a game in the National Elementary Championships. Chess The first newspaper chess column was that in the Liverpool Mercury in 1813.ChessCentral. He contributed to the chess development of Bobby Fischer. scoring 40-0.Chess Trivia
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Cohen. The oldest column still in existence is that of the Illustrated London News. Collins. The first official college student Olympiad chess tournament was held in Oslo in 1954.com
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www. England in 1952. Column. and the Byrne brothers. which first appeared in 1842. The first American chess column appeared in 1845 in the New York Spirit of the Times. Jack Former US Postal champion and New York State champion. Bill Lombardy.

The Massachusetts Amateur Championship marked the first time a chess computer played chess against human beings under tournament conditions in 1967. 1983 was the first time a microcomputer beat a master in tournament play. ended up witha 1239 provisional rating. The first world computer championship was held in Stockholm in 1974 and won by the Soviet program.Chess Trivia
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Computers The first chess effort on the part of a computer is a mate in 2 programmed in 1949 on a Ferranti digital machine.com
. Consecutive Moves There were 72 consecutive Queen moves in the Mason-Mackenzie game at London in 1882. from MIT.ChessCentral. Cray Blitz was the first chess computer to win a state chess championship when it won the Mississippi Championship in 1981.The first chess tournament in which the only players were computer programs was held in New York in 1970. The first computer program that played proper chess was written at MIT by Alex Bernstein in 1959. 1983 was the first time a computer gained an established master’s rating. Kaissa. www. MacHack VI.

The earlist postal game was between players in Brada and The Hague in 1824. valid for only three years. that his name came to signify the act. Cook. Nathaniel Designer of the Staunton chessmen in 1835. Cook’s firm was absorbed by John Jaques and Son. In 1870 the first correspondence chess club.com
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Cook A composition term for an alternative key not intended by the composer. In 1852 Staunton made a deal with Cook to authorize Staunton’s signature as a trademark to attach to the boxes in which his sets were sold.ChessCentral. Cook did not renew his registration. and found second or more solutions to so many problems. the Caissa Correspondence www. Howard Staunton recommended the use of these chessmen six months later. Correspondence Chess The first reputed correspondence game of chess was played in 1119 by King Henry I of England and King Louis VI of France. He registered his design in 1849. Ltd in 1900. Named after Eugene Cook (1830-1915) who was so expert a solver.

In 1888 the first international correspondence tournament was held.ChessCentral. James R. Counselor Name of the Queen in Borneo. was founded. and Turkey. Iran. no draws).Chess Trivia
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Club. Correspondence Grandmasters are Hans Berliner and Victor Palciauskas. Most correspondence games played at once is 1000 by Robert Wyller. no losses.S. Name of the Bishop in Java. Cox. The only two U. China. In 1883 Cambridge University played a correspondence match with the Bedlam insane asylum. Cracow Poem A Latin poem in a manuscript dated 1422 in the Jagellonne Library in Cracow. Bedlam won. www. First offical New York State chess champion (1878). Both have been world correspondence champions. The poem attributes the invention of chess to Ulysses. The highest rated USCF correspondence player was Penquite at 2927 (won 49 games straight.com
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The Mexican entrants were recalled by their government.Chess Trivia
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Cray Blitz The first computer to win a state championship (Mississippi in 1981). there was a revolution in Cuba.) In 1971. Kit In 1948 Kit Crittenden won the North Carolina state championship at age 13.S. www. Irina Krush broke that record when she played in the US Women’s championship at age 11. Rachel (1958. Crown Prince of Chess Nickname of Aaron Nimzovich. The President who sponsored the tournament was deposed. During the event. Crotto. he finished in last place in the state championship. Crittenden. she was the youngest girl ever to play in the U. Women’s championship. at age 13. The year before. becoming the nation’s youngest state champion.ChessCentral. Cuba In 1952 there was an international tournament in Havana.com
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ChessCentral.com
. playing in the event died of a heart attack. His funeral was attended by all the masters participating. The first open international tournament held in Cuba took place in 1992 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Havana as the capital of the island. transmitted the move in Havana. the Cuban champion. Cuba spent over $5 million on the 1966 Olympiad held in Havana. Cuba had to pay the bill of over $10. Each game lasted up to seven hours. After the event.000. Customs Act of 1876 This act was specifically created to prevent imports of indecent and obscene chessmen. son of the late World Champion.
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Finally. Dr Jose Raul Capablanca. In 1965 Cuba linked up to the Marshall Chess Club in New York by telex to allow Fischer to play in the Capablanca Memorial tournament being held in Havana. Castro played several exhibition games including a draw with Grandmaster Tigran Petrosian. Juan Quesada.

and finally settled in Israel. Ionnidis lost all his games (4) and Cyprus. Their team only won 2 games. Ioannidis also went 0 for 20.ChessCentral. At Varna the team went 0 for 20 and one of their players. Their team won 5 games. drawing 1 and losing 13. drew 4 games. took last place. Czerniak. In 1962 Cyprus scored the worst score of any Chess Olympiad team. emigrated to Palestine.Chess Trivia
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Cyprus In 1960 the Cyprus Chess Association was founded and the first Cyprus chess championship took place.
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. again. Moshe (1910-1984) Chessplayer who was born in Poland. and lost 76 games. and lost 47 games. drew 2 games. In 1964 at the Tel Aviv Olympiad. He won the championship of Palestine in 1936 at the age of 26. He won the championship of Israel in 1974 at the age of 64. lived in Argentina most of his life.

www. This annoyed the Prince who gave the art object to the 3rd place finisher (Pillsbury). pointing out he had made gross errors. Prince Sponsor of the 1903 Monte Carlo tournament.Chess Trivia
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D
Dadian. He became a bridge toll collector. Dake.ChessCentral. and finally an automobile inspector for the state of Oregon. The players wanted a play for money also. Arthur (1910.com
. He invited Tchigorin to play but later paid him 1.) Oldest living grandmaster (1986).500 francs (greater than 3rd prize money) not to play because Tchigorin had published analysis of one of the Prince’s games. then a highway auto controller. A valuable art object was to go to the winner of a short match between the 1st and 2nd place finishers (Tarrasch and Maroczy).

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. Damiano (1500-1544) Author of Questo Libro e da imparare giocave a scachi. It was written in Italian and Spanish and was the first bestseller of the modern game of chess. He had previosly won in 1961 at the age of 77 and in 1965 at the age of 81. It went through eight editions in 50 years. The first World Championship for the Deaf and Dumb was held in Poland in 1956 and won by Svaversky of Czechoslovakia. Damian. www. (1883-1979) Perhaps the oldest person to win a state chess championship. the first chess book in Italy. In 1968 he won the Championship of Maine at age 85.ChessCentral.Chess Trivia
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Daly. Deaf and Dumb The first team championship for the deaf was held in Norway in 1953. Harlow B. Petrius Cardinal bishop of Ostia who wrote to Pope Alexander II in 1061 urging the pope to forbid chess from the clergy and to punish a bishop for wasting his time playing chess in the evenings.

Dean of New England Chess Title of Harry Lyman
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Death of Chessplayers Georgy Agzamov (1954-1986) died after falling down between two rocks at a beach. Harry Pillsbury (1872-1906) www. Johannes Minckwitz (1843-1901) committed suicide by throwing himself in front of a train. Frank Marshall (1877-1944) died of a heart attack after leaving a chess tournament in Jersey City. Jose Capablanca (1888-1942) died of a stroke after watching a skittles game at the Manhattan Chess Club.ChessCentral.com
. Efim Bogoljobov (1889-1952) died of a heart attack after a simultaneous exhibition. Curt Von Bardeleben (1861-1924) committed suicide by jumping out of an upper window of his boarding home. Edgar Colle (1897-1932) died after an operation for a gastric ulcer. George Mackenzie (1837-1891) died after an overdose of morphine. Nikolai Grigoriev (1895-1938) died after an operation for appendicitis.Chess Trivia
Dean of American Chess Title of George Koltanowski. Paul Morphy (1837-1884) died of a stroke while taking a cold bath.

Carl Schlechter (1874-1918) died from pneumonia and starvation.com
. Vladimir Simagin (1919-1968) died of a heart attack while playing in a chess tournament.Chess Trivia
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died of syphillis. Deep Thought became the first computer to defeat a grandmaster in tournament play by defeating Bent Larsen at the 1988 U. Deep Thought www.ChessCentral. Deep Thought tied for first place in the U. It searched approximately 2 million chess positions per second. Nicholas Rossolimo (1910-1975) died of head injuries after falling down a flight of stairs in Manhattan. Deep Thought Once the strongest chess playing computer in the world. Frederick Yates (1884-1932) died in his sleep from a leak in a faulty gas pipe connection.S. Johann Zukertort (1842-1888) died of a stroke while playing chess at a London coffee house. Pierre Saint-Amant (1800-1872) died after falling from a horse and carriage. Alexander Zaitsev died of thrombosis after a minor operation to remedy a limp by having one leg lengthened. Open. Open with Tony Miles. Herman Steiner (1905-1955) died of a heart attack after a game from the California State Championship.S.

He once played 100 oppponents in 7. Chess Championship. In 1942 he beat Reshevsky on time in the U.) A onetime boxer (won three successive Golden Gloves bouts by knockouts) who won the 1944 U.ChessCentral. While spectators watched. He was looking at the clock backwards and refused to change is decision. which ultimately gave Reshevsky the title. Denker once appeared in an advertisement for Camel cigarettes.
www. Arnold (1914. The first use of a demonstration board in a World Championship match was for the Steinitz-Zukertort match in 1886. the tournament director (Walter Stephens) mistakenly declared that Denker’s time had expired.S. Championship.S. He received an Honorary Grandmaster title in 1981.Chess Trivia
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became the world computer champion in 1989 and defeated David Levy in a match later that year. Demonstartion Board The first demonstration board was designed in 1857 by Lowenthal.33 hours.com
. Denker.

Deschapelles is the greatest whist player in France. after interviewing him. Deschapelles is the greatest billiards player in France.Chess Trivia
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Denmark The Danish kings. Deschapelles is the greatest chess player in France. wrote: “M. He lost his right arm fighting the Prussians. M. M. Knut V and Valdemar. Deschapelles is the greatest liar in France. M. were playing chess when attacked. In 1250 King Eric Plowpenny was captured while playing chess and later executed. Knut was killed but Valdemar escaped by using the chessboard as a shield. Deschapelles is the greatest pumpkin-grower in France. He gave up chess and took up whist when he could no longer beat his opponents at odds.”
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. He claimed to have mastered chess in three days of study. George Perigal. Alexandre (1780-1847) Probably the strongest player in the world from 1810 to 1820. M. Deschapelles.

Cecil (1845-1875) First official British Chess Champion (1866) who won the title at age 21. It was founded in 1846 by Bledow. Dice Dice were used between the 10th and 14th century to determine which piece should be moved. His real name was Valentine Brown and he was born on Valentine’s Day. It was not published from 1945 to 1950.com
. He remained the youngest titleholder for over a century. He died of tuberculosis at the age of 29. It is the oldest chess magazine still in existence. The court ruled that www. De Vere. Divorce In 1963 a wife of a chessplayer in Milan filed for divorce because he was so obsessed with chess that he refused to work and support their two children.ChessCentral. Dilaram Composition The most famous of the Shatranj compositions.Chess Trivia
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Deutsche Schachzeitung Leading chess periodical in Germany.

the youngest U.com
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Mrs. Max (1966. In 1990 he became the first Grandmaster to be elected President of the U. In the 1985-86 British Ladies Correspondence Chess Championship. Nick Down entered as Miss Leigh Strange and won the event.ChessCentral.S. the USCF Laws of www. he advanced to the interzonals. Up until 1952.) Winner of the 1985 World Junior Champion. player since Fischer. Chess Federation. Dlugy. Drawn The first time a draw counted a half point was the Dundee International in 1867. Edvige Ruinstein was entitled to a separation from her husband. Down. He was later caught and admitted his deception was a prank that got out of hand.S. Nick A former British Junior Correspondence Champion. He was later banned from the British Correspondence Chess Association. In 1985 at the age of 19.

Holland. Denmark. and the U. The previous record was Lucerne 1982 which had 91 countries. www. Drawing Master Nickname of Carl Schlechter. A record 107 countries participated. the title should probably go to O’Kelly de Galway who drew all his nine games at Beverwijk in 1957. He drew half of his games during his tournament career. Drawn Games Up to 1867 tournament games that were drawn had to be replayed.S. However.Chess Trivia
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Chess stated that draws could not be accepted by mutual consent until 30 moves were made.com
. Norway. and drew all nine games at Beverwijk in 1959. drew seven out of nine at Beverwijk in 1958. The 1929 International Rules of Chess and the 1939 USCF rules required players to play a minimum of 30 moves before agreeing to a draw. Virgin Islands boycotted the Olympiad because Israel was excluded.ChessCentral. Sweden. Dubal Host of the 1986 Chess Olympiad.

They were divorced three months later.com
.) Portuguese chess player. Duel Maroczy once challenged Nimzovich to a pistol duel at Bled. He played for France on four Olympiads. Marcel (1887-1968) Renowned artist (one of the founders of Dadaism. Joaquim (1938. Durano.Chess Trivia
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Duchamp. He has won the Portuguese championship 13 times. Lydie. glued all his chess pieces to the board because he spent his honeymoon week studying chess. awarded the International Master title in 1975. 1931. and cubism) and chess player who used chess themes in many of his paintings. In 1927 his bride.ChessCentral.
www. surrealism.

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E
Edmondson. He suffered a heart attack while playing chess on the beach at Waikiki. He was the President of the Texas Chess Association in the early 1960s. The Edmondson trophy goes to the winner of the National Open.ChessCentral. He had just left his chair when suddenly an immense rock fell on the very spot where he had been sitting.com
. Edward I (1239-1307) King of England. Chess Federation. He was an Air Force Lieutenant Colonel and navigator who retired after 23 years of service. In 1270 he was playing chess against a soldier in a room with a tiled roof. Ed (1920-1982) Former president (1963) and executive director (1967-1977) of the U.
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Switzerland. Einstein. Albert Albert Einstein was a good friend of World Chess Champion Emanual Lasker. Khusrau II in 620. When I get through work I don’t want anything which requires the working of the mind. It is a 98-line poem describing chess.” He did take up chess in his later life.ChessCentral. It was written in the 10th century in the monastery at Einsiedeln. Egypt Chess was introduced in Egypt by the Sasanian king. Einsiedeln Verses The earlies known literary account of chess and the earliest reference to chess in a western document. “I do not play any games. J.com
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EG First endgame magazine devoted to chess endgames and studies. In an interview with the New York Times in 1936 Albert said. Roycroft. www. first published in 1965 and founded by A. There is no time for it.

Queen and Rook vs. Endgame The maximum number of moves required to deliver mate from the worst possible starting position are as follows: Rook and Bishop vs.71 moves. Knight .com
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www. two Knights . Chess Federation.Chess Trivia
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Elo. two Knights . Queen vs.66 moves.59 moves.63 moves. winning the title 8 times. from 1933 to 1969. Rook . two Bishops . He was a professor of physics and President of the American Chess Federation (1935-37) before it merged and came part of the U. Queen vs.223 moves. two Bishops vs. which was adopted by the US Chess Federation in 1960 and the World Chess Federation (FIDE) in 1970.ChessCentral. Rook and Bishop vs. Queen . Arpad (1903-1992) Played in 37 consecutive state championships in Wisconsin. He developed the ELO rating system.S.67 moves. Endgame miniature Endgame composed of no more than 7 pieces.

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www. His name has become a psychiatric term (eonism) for males who adopt feminine mannerisms and clothing. “teachers are all jerks. He once beat Philidor.ChessCentral.Chess Trivia
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En passant First used in the 15th century but not universially accepted until 1880. Bobby dropped out at age 16 saying. Barbra attended Erasmus at the same time as Bobby and once “had a crush” on him.com
. Erasmus High School High school that Bobby Fischer. Eon de Beaumont. Walter Browne and Barbra Streisand attended. Charles D’ (1728-1810) French chessplayer and male transvestite who was a diplomat for Louis XV.

www. which joined FIDE in 1947. the Soviet delegation. he said the feeling of gloves on his hands psychologically induced in him a fighting spirit.Chess Trivia
Euwe. Euwe wore gloves while playing his games. He was once the former amateur heavyweight boxing champion of Europe. the FIDE Congress voted for Euwe to be world champion since Alekhine died. They showed up the next day and had the title rescinded in favor of a match-tournament. When he was asked why. Max (1901-1981)
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Twice world champion .1935-37 and for 1 day in 1947. In the world championship match-tournament in 1948. However. In 1947.ChessCentral.com
. was late one day for this vote.

S. Evans once gave a simultaneous exhibition at an insane asylum. Larry (1932. he was the U. He has won the U.com
. Closed Champion. winning 39 and losing 1. Berlin. because of its beauty. the U.ChessCentral. Best Blackjack player of any Grandmaster. Nevada. Speed Champion. championship four times. and the U. In 1951. His brother was later killed in action as a bomber crew member during World War II.) Learned chess from his older brother at age five. the winner said.S.Chess Trivia
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Evans. at age 19.S.
www. He lives in Reno. Excelsior theme A pawn that goes from its initial square to the promotion rank in 5 consecutive moves in the course of a solution. Evergreen game A name given by Steinitz to the Anderssen-Dufresne game. When he went to congratulate the winner. but it sure helps!” He became a Grandmaster in 1957. Open Champion. “You don’t have to be crazy to play chess.S. 1852.

Exclamation point The first exclamation point for a chess move appeared in game notes in Staunton’s Chess Player’s Chronicle. and it designated a bad move. Ezra. The title came from counting out money on a chequer-board used for chess. which was used as a form of abacus.ChessCentral. Chancellor of the British finance minister.
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Exchequer. In 1080 the Normans named their financial departments of State l’excheiquier after the chessboard. Executioner of Berlin Nickname of Kurt Richter.com
. Abraham (1092-1167) Wrote the first chess poems in Hebrew in the 12th century.

India in which 12 men took part.
www. Some of the Fairy pieces include nightriders. She was disqualified because she was a woman playing in a club whose membership was confined to men. She won all her games. She became an emancipation activist. She appealed this decision in court and won. Hedgehogs. Wazirs. Mathilda (1850-1931) Winner of a chess tournament in Bombay. Imitators.com
. Vaos. Fers. balloons. 39 draws. Hans (1874-1939) First master to play 100 opponents simultaneously.Chess Trivia
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Fagan. Fairy chess Also known as heterodox chess. and 6 losses in seven and a half hours. His score was 55 wins. Camels. Fahrni.ChessCentral. It took place in 1911 at Munich. and Grasshoppers.

was founded in 1924 by Pierre Vincent of France. the 2nd largest organization in the world in terms of national membership (only soccer is larger). Canada.Chess Trivia
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Farm In 1949 125. Czechoslovakia. but only after having www. Poland. and Yugoslavia. Switzerland. Hungary. The 15 founding countries were: Argentina.com
. Fers The mediaevel type of Queen that can move only one step along any of its 4 diagonals and has no orthogonal movement. Spain. Great Britain. Romania. There are 146 nations that are members. The Soviet Union joined FIDE in 1947. or world chess federation. Holland. France. Alexandre Rueb was the first FIDE president. Italy.ChessCentral.000 players competed for the championship of the USSR collective farms. FIDE The Federation Internationale des Eschecs. Belgium. Father of Modern Chess Nickname of Aron Nimzovich. Finland.

Field. Fine. The first film to deal excusively with chess was Chess Fever.ChessCentral. Film The first time chess appeared in film was from a scene in The Wishing Ring in 1914. Ted Sponsor of the New York leg of the 1990 Kasparov-Karpov world championship match.Chess Trivia
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Spain.S. During World War II he was employed by the Navy to calculate where enemy submarines might surface based on positional probability. in the 1930s.com
.5 million and sold it for $150 million. He was also a translator during www. Reuben (1914-1993) One of the best chessplayers in the U. Cocktail. He bought Panavision for $52. He produced Three Men and a Baby. He also did research on Japanese Kamikaze attacks. ejected from FIDE. FIDE once considered setting up a fund for retired and impovrished chess masters. and Class Action. made in Moscow in 1925 and starring Capablanca. Outrageous Fortune. a founder-member of FIDE.

This massive poem took 35 years to write.S. followed by Norman Weinstein. finished first-second in an international event was the Portimao. In 1011 he finished the great epic poem Shah Nama (Book of Kings) which recounted the history of chess. It is the only pre-Islamic source which gives such details as the names of the chess pieces.
www. Firdausi One of Persia greatest poets.com
. First-Second The first time the U. He won or tied for 1st in 23 of his 27 tournaments that he played in.ChessCentral. He gave up chess to become a psychoanalyst. Portugal International Tournament. He won 7 US Opens. mastering 7 languages.Chess Trivia
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World War II. Larry Evans took first place.

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Fischer, Robert (1943- )

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The youngest American chess champion ever (14), the second youngest grandmaster ever (15 years, 6 months, 1 day), and the youngest Candidate for the World Championship ever (15). Fischer once withdrew from a chess tournament because a woman was playing in the event (she was Lisa Lane and U.S. woman champion). His I.Q. has been recorded to be over 180. He received $3.65 million for defeating Spassky in the Fischer-Spassky II match in Yugoslavia in 1992. In 1962 he boasted, “Women are weakies. I can give Knight odds to any www.ChessCentral.com

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woman in the world!” His performance rating against Larsen in 1971 was 3060 after a 6-0 victory. In 1970 he won the Blitz Tournament of the Century in Herceg Novi, Yugoslavia by a score of 19 out of 22. After the tournament he called off from memory the moves of all his 22 games, involving more that 1,000 moves. In 1981 he was arrested in Pasadena under suspicion of bank robbing. He later wrote of this incident in a book entitled, I Was Tortured in the Pasadena Jailhouse. Fischer Chess Clock Aimed at eliminating time scrambles by allocating time at the beginning of a game and adding a minute increment after each move. The clock was patented (#4,884,255) by Fischer in 1988 and was used in the Fischer-Spassky II match in Yugoslavia. Fischer, Regina Wender (1913- ) Mother of Bobby Fischer who was born in Switzerland. She was a riveter in a defense plant during World War II, became a grade school teacher, registered nurse, and physician. From 1933 to 1938 she studied medicine at the First Moscow Medical Institute in the Soviet Union. Her www.ChessCentral.com

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medical degree was not valid in the United States. She chained herself to the White House gate in 1960 to protest the government’s refusal to send a chess team to East Germany. In 1968, at the age of 55, she received a medical degree from the Friedrich Schiller University in East Germany. Flag A device fitted on each dial of a chess clock, first used in 1899. Flanders, Count of In 1213 the Count of Flanders got angry and beat up his wife after losing to her in chess. Later, he was taken prisoner. His wife could have obtained his release but never forgave him for the beating. He remainded a prisoner for 13 years. Flesch, Janos (1933-1983) Hungarian International Master (1963) and honorary Grandmaster (1980). He claimed a world record simultaneous exhibition when he played 52 opponents blindfold exhibition in Budapest 1960. www.ChessCentral.com

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Flohr, Salo (1908-1983) In 1937 Salo Flohr was nominated by FIDE to be the official candidate to play Alekhine for the World Championship. Arrangements were started for a match with Alekhine, but the plans were dropped when Flohr’s adopted homeland of Czechoslovakia was annexed by Germany. Flohr became a refugee for a second time and went to Russia. He was orphaned in World War I and was taken as a child refugee to Bohemia. Flores, Rodrigo Born in 1913 at Santiago, Chile. At 12 he played in the Chilean Championship and finished fourth. He won the Chilean ch 3 times. He was the winner of the 1946-47 Marshall Chess Club championship. Fool’s mate The shortest game ending in mate after two moves. 1 g4 e6 or e5 2 f3 or f4 Qh4 mate. France The first French reference to chess is in a report of the siege of Antioch. During the First Crusade, Peter the Herwww.ChessCentral.com

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mit found the Turkish general playing chess. In 110 King Louis VI of France was captured by an English knight, who shouts that the king has been captured. The King escaped yelling, “Ignorant and insolent knight. Not even in chess can a King be taken.” In 1962 Bobby Dudley won the first USCF rated event in France. Franklin, Benjamin (1706-1790) Wrote the first chess article published in America, the ‘Morals of Chess.’ Franklin wrote it in London in 1779 and reproduced in a refined version in the Columbian Magazine in Philadelphia in 1786. In 1791 a translation from the French reprint was published in St. Petersburg. This was the first book on chess published in Russia. Fredkin Prize Prize of $100,000 for the first computer to win a match from a Grandmaster. Frederick the Great of Prussia An enthusiastic chessplayer who played a correspondence game with his early tutor, Voltaire, by royal courtier between Berlin and Paris. www.ChessCentral.com

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Frydman. Paulino (1905-1982) A leading Polish player during the 1930s who represented his country in seven Olympiads.ChessCentral.

Ruy Lopez was the first to use it as a chess term for traps in 1561.ChessCentral.” and the others swooped in.D. vice officers raided a nightly chess tournament at Dad’s Donuts. The cited three men for gambling after finding $1. Greco introduces the term into England and France in 1623. www. L.P. Gambling The police raided a chess tournament in Cleveland in 1973.50 on the table.A. This incident was repeated in Los Angeles in 1989. The detective then pulled out his badge and said “you are under arrest.Chess Trivia
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Gambit A wrestling term for tripping up the heels. The plainsclothes detectives staged the raid after one tried unsuccessfully to join a blitz game.com
. arrested the tournament director and confiscated the chess sets on charges of allowing gambling (cash prizes to winners) and possession of gambling devices (the chess sets).

His $10. Garcia.
www.ChessCentral. Nona (1941. The motto of FIDE. She became the first woman to win a “men’s” chess tournament when she tied for first place at Lone Pine in 1977. invoking the Trading With the Enemy Act of 1917. in 1978. Guillermo (1954-1990) Three-time Cuban champion who took 2nd place in the 1988 New York Open.Chess Trivia
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Game of the Century Game between Donald Byrne and Bobby Fischer in 1956 when Fischer was 13 years old. Gaprindashvili. because he was Cuban.000 prize was confiscated by the Department of Treasury.com
. Gens Una Sumas (We are all one people). He died in an automobile accident near Havana. She has had a perfume named after her in the USSR.) The first woman to achieve the men’s International Grandmaster title.

He is also considered one of Yugoslavia’s best war heroes and the best soccer-playing Grandmaster. Ellen (1837-1900) Perhaps the strongest woman player ever. She was known as the Queen of Chess. and announced mate in 21 moves and mate in 35 moves in their two games. Gilbert.ChessCentral. In 1879 she played a correspondence match with one of the strongest correspondence players in the world.) Yugoslav Grandmaster who became Yugoslavia’s Sportsman of the Year in 1959. Svetozar (1923. Giuoco Piano First known chess opening. www. the first chess player in Yugoslavia to be so honored. Gligoric. George Gossip. according to the Gottingen manuscript (1490). USSR From 1963 to 1969 Georgia had the distinction of being the birthplace of both World Chess Champions (Petrosian and Gaprindashvili).com
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Georgia.

1987 in Brussels by Kasparov.” He barred all Jewish chessmaster from official tournaments of the German Chess League. Golden Knights The first Golden Knights postal chess tournament started in 1943 and was won by John Staffer. President of the new league. said all Jews would be excluded unless they proved themselves at the front line of a war. Minister of Propoganda and Enlightenment. wanted an “All-German Chess League.
www. Otto Zander.com
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GMA Grandmasters Association. Paul Joseph In 1933 Goebbels.’ Goebbels. Goebbels sought out players who were of strong National Socialist persuasion.ChessCentral. It organized the World Cup Series in which the top 24 players in the world were invited to compete for the title of ‘World Tournament Champion.

Sonja (1914-1965) Winner of four U. 1964). Geller. she was prevented from playing on the German team by a www. the first one so honored. Gottingen Manuscript The earliest known work entirely devoted to modern chess.) Three times British Champion (1947.E. Harry (1911. She was woman champion of her native Germany until the outbreak of World War II. At the chess Olympiad in Buenos Aires in 1939. Graf. 1955).) in 1966 for his services to the game of chess. 1949.com
. and Spassky in round 14 of the 1955 Gothenburg Interzonal. He represented England in 9 Olympiads. He has officiated 6 World Championship matches.Chess Trivia
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Golombek. and Pilnik by Keres. Supposedly written by Lucena in 1474.B.ChessCentral. Women’s Open and two Closed Championships (1957. Awarded the Order of the British Empire (O.S. Gothenburg Trilogy Triple massacre of Argentine Grandmaster Najdorf. He was a pilot in the Royal Air Force during World War II. Panno.

Levenfish. Samisch.” Grandmaster First used in connection with chess as a player of highest class in 1838. Nicholas II. In 1914. The title of grandmaster was first used in 1907 at the Ostend tournament. Capablanca. These are the five original Grandmasters. and Marshall after they took the top 5 places in the St. Tartakower. Bondarevsky. Najdorf.Chess Trivia
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Nazi edict. Boleslavsky. Kostic. and 102 women GMs. In the 1960s the United States had more Grandmasters than International Masters. conferred the title ‘Grandmaster of Chess’ on Emanuel Lasker. www. Kotov. Botvinnik.ChessCentral. Rubinstein. Duras. the Czar of Russia. Grunfeld. Keres. In 1998 there were 565 Grandmasters in the world. Alekhine.com
. Maroczy. Ragozin. She went on to play at large under the banner of “Liberty. Petersburg tournament. Fine. Euwe. Stahlberg. and Vidmar. Smyslov. 5 with the honorary GM title. Tarrasch. Mieses. Szabo. Bronstein. Flohr. Lilienthal. In 1950 FIDE awarded 27 players the first official Grandmaster title. Reshevsky. These players were: Bernstein.

Giachino (1600-1634) Best known of the wandering chessmen in the early 17th century. He made a living selling chess manuscripts of openings and traps to wealthy patrons. He was taken to the West Indies by a Spanish nobleman where he died. it must hop over that man to the square next beyond. Texas. Chess Championship in El Paso. leaving his fortune to the Jesuits.Chess Trivia
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Grasshopper A Fairy chess piece that moves along Queen lines.) Tied for first in the 1973 U.com
. then the Grasshopper captures him. Greco. a 15 year-old prophet from India. If there is an enemy man on that square. He attributed his success by his complete devotion to the Guru Maharaj-Ji. John (1947. Grefe.S.ChessCentral. Great Stone Face Nickname of Mikhail Botvinnik. but when it meets a man of either color along one of these lines. www.

and his condemned brother became Yusuf III. La Strategie. Muhammad VII.Chess Trivia
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Grenada In 1408 Prince Yusuf of Grenada was ordered slain by his brother.permission to finish a game of chess. Gresser. shared 1st and 2nd honorable mentions. Women’s Championship at the age of 63.S. Of the 12 awards he shared 1st and 2nd prizes.S. Grigoriev. 4th and 5th prizes. She was the Women’s World Chess Championship Challenger in 1949-50. King of Grenada.S. 4th. but was granted his last request . promoted an end-game competition.ChessCentral. Second place went to 55 year-old Mona Karff (6 times former Champion). She was awarded the International Woman Master title in 1950. and was awarded 3rd. won 3rd. She was the first woman in the U. She first won the title in 1944. 5th and 6th honorable mentions. Gisela (1906. The monarch died while the game was in progress.) Winner of the U. to achieve a master’s rating. She won the 1969 U.com
. Nikolai (1895-1938) Soviet endgame analyst. Women’s Championship 9 times. www. In 1936 the French magazine.

Preston Ware.500 Dutch guilders and a silver cigarette box from the Queen. 21 invited players showed up but only 20 players were allowed to play.com
. Grundy bribed his opponent. One of the Russian players promised to invite Prins to an international tournament if he dropped out. A picture of the Martini Tower in Groningen in a silver frame was given to the last place finisher. but the promise was never met. A tablecloth was given to the best non-prizewinner.Chess Trivia
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Groningen 1946 First international chess tournament after World War II. receiving 1. James (1855-1919) Responsible for the most infamous scandal in U.S.000 spectators paid for admission to the event. championship history. so it was between Prins and Euwe to drop out. Grundy needed a win in the last round to tie for first place at the 5th American Chess Congress in 1880. He agreed.ChessCentral. The tournament did not want to turn away any foreign player. $20 during the game to let Ware’s advantage slip into a draw so that Grundy could make sure of second place. 12. Botvinnik won. Grundy. When www.

Boris refused to sign a form letter denouncing the defection of Victor Korchnoi in 1979.Chess Trivia
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Ware agreed and took the money. Gulko.) Former Soviet champion (1977) who tried to emigrate from the Soviet Union for over 7 years and was finally allowed to do so in 1986. Boris (1947. Heidi Cueller. as a member of their team. We went on a 40 day hunger strike.com
. In www. He was denied entrance to the tournament even as a spectator. Grundy tricked him and played for a win which he did. She won the Soviet women’s championship twice and was cheated out of a third victory in 1982 when the result of a game she won was reversed. She was the youngest person to play in an Olympiad. Guatemala In 1986 Guatemala was represented by four brothers named Juarez at the chess Olympiad in Dubai. His wife is one of the strongest women chessplayers in the world.ChessCentral. Their women’s team had a 10-year old. He was arrested for demonstrating in front of the Moscow Interzonal in 1982 and beaten up by KGB agents. Anna Akhsumarova.

He won the US Championship in 1994. making him the only man to win both the USSR and the US championship. Isidor (1854-1930) Only British player who has ever played a match for the world championship.
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1991 Gulko had to be smuggled into Yugoslavia to act as a second to Irina Levitina in the 1991 Women’s Interzonal.ChessCentral. eight oversights did not make a blunder. He won the suit after the British High Court accepted a submission that in chess matters. Charles (1835-1921) Inventor of the chess automation ‘Mephisto. Gumpel. In 1916 he sued the Evening News for libel when they said that his chess column contained blunders. He tied for 1st with Judit Polgar in the 1998 US Open. Gunsburg.’ He was a manufacturer of artificial limbs. He was unable to get a passport from the tournament delegation so they smuggled him in from Hungary.com
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Junior Champion (1990). Gutmayer.Chess Trivia
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Gurevich. U. Ilya (1972.
www. National Elementary Champion (1983). World Under-14 Champion (1985).S.ChessCentral.) U.com
. but he never became one himself. Franz (1857-1937) Wrote a book on how to become a chess master. and World Junior Champion (1990).S.

ChessCentral. Gresser. Kashdan. Fischer. Morphy. US Chess Formed in the US in 1986. Benko. Reinfeld. there were no medals for board prizes. Pillsbury. For example. Also. This was the first time an olympiad was conducted as a Swiss system. and Vukcevich. Fine. there was a miscellany of prizes. Horowitz. Helms. www. Harkness. Israel Sight of the 1976 chess Olympiad. Its members include Berliner. Loyd. Reshesky. only one per board. Mackenzie. Instead. Denker. Elo. Libya protested and had an olympiad of their own at the same time. Steinitz. Larry Evans. Koltanowski. Palciauskas. the best sixth board went to Kim Commons who received a copy of Fischer’s My Sixty Memorable Games. Marshall. Bisguier.Chess Trivia
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Haifa. Robert Byrne. Hall of Fame. The USSR did not play and the United States team won. Edmondson.com
. Jack Collins.

Handbuch des Schachspiels Began by von Bilgaer and completed by von der Lasa. the current series started in 1920.ChessCentral. Jana Malypetrova Hartston (1947. won the British women’s championship in 1974.) Bill Hartston won the British men’s chess championship while his wife.com
. Hastings The oldest and longest running tournament in the world. William (1947. Harkness. and inventor of the median system tie-breaker.Chess Trivia
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Hanauer. Kenneth (1898-1972) The first to compile a US Chess Federation rulebook. Hartston. First held in 1895. it was the first encyclopedic treatment of the chess openings on modern lines.).
www. the first USCF Executive Director. Milton (1909-1988) Vice President of the Marshall Chess Club where he had been a member for over 60 years.

480 boards was given. The American chess team was the first American cultural team to visit Cuba since Castro took over in 1958.com
. The referees decided to give the bronze medal to Hungary.Chess Trivia
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Havana 1966 The 17th Chess Olympiad was held in Havana. There was a tie betwen Hungary and Yugoslavia. At the end of the Olympiad. Cuba paid for the air expenses of every team. Hawthorne Chess Club Jack Collins’ chess club which coached Fischer. There were 52 countries out of the 68 FIDE members that participated. Yugoslavia should have been awarded the bronze medal and this has never been corrected. Matera. the Byrne brothers. Each team had a chauffer and a car. and Weinstein. www. but their tie-break calculations were faulty. Lombardy.ChessCentral. USSR took first place followed by the USA. a simultaneous exhibition of 6. He played games against Petrosian and Fischer among others. Premier Castro was on the Organizing Committee and showed up for many of the rounds.

Helms. a period of 59 years. Milton (1824-1907) Newspaper chess columnist in the late 19th century. He published The American Chess Bulletin from 1904 to 1963. He wrote a chess column for 62 years. He was instrumental in directing Bobby Fischer to the Brooklyn Chess Club.ChessCentral. Helpmate A problem in which both White and Black cooperate to find the shortest mate. which they won. He was the first person to omit the “to” from recorded moves ." Heidelburg Site of the first known chess tournament in 1467.Chess Trivia
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Hazeltine. Herman (1870-1963) Dean of American Chess. and day after reaching the age of 93. Helsinki 1952 Site of the 10th chess Olympiad and the first time the Soviets participated. He died in Brooklyn. www. He was New York state champion in 1906.com
. from 1893 to 1955 in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.making “P to K4" into ”P-K4.

Heritage tournament A chess tournament held for 25 years or more. formal world correspondence champion. Hero of Hastings Nickname of Henry Pillsbury. imprisoned his brother Richard. Duke of Normandy.com
.ChessCentral. Prior to winning the XVI North American Computer Championship.
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Henry I King of England who. in 1106. Richar’s only activity was playing chess. Hitech 1986 North American computer champion. in Cardiff Castle for 28 years. Hans Berliner. it won a Pittsburgh masters’ tournament with a performance rating of over 2400. who was the unexpected winner of the Hastings 1895 tournament. In 1988 Hitech won the Pennsylvania State Chess Championship outright after defeating International Master Ed Formanek (2485) in the last round.

Capablanca. He won the Manhattan Chess Club Championship and the New York championship.S. His first job was a hidden operator of Ajeeb. Hodgson.) Winner of the 1992 British Championship with an all-time record of 10 out of 11 points. Lasker. He never defended his title. He was the winner of the 1991 British Championship as well. He won the US championship in 1894 after defeating Jackson Showalter. Champion. Pillsbury challenged him in 1895 but Hodges declined for business reasons. Steinitz. the Chess Automation.Chess Trivia
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Hodges. and Alekhine. Albert Beauregard (1861-1944) Former U. In 1990 the Hong Kong Olympiad team consisted of four players from four different countries. Julian (1963. He was the only American master to play against 5 world chess champions over a period of 60 years.com
. He played chess and checkers. He played Zukertort.ChessCentral. Hong Kong The Hong Kong team in the 1974 Students’ Chess Olympiad consisted of five brothers aged 8 to 18. www.

ChessCentral. The resolution then went to the Senate where it was objected by Senator Metzenbaum (D-OH) and died in the Senate’s Judiciary www.S.com
. Vlatimil (1944. West Germany. House of Representatives passed House Resolution 545 by unaminous consent which stated that the United States Government recognize Bobby Fischer as the World Chess Champion.) One of the top grandmasters in the world. In 1984 he played 663 games in a simultaneous exhibition in 32 and a half hours at Porz. He worked as a chess professional in England. He won the first study-composing tournament in 1862. House Resolution 545 In 1986 the U. Horwitz. Al (1907-1973) Won or tied for 1st in 3 US Opens. which emerged with Chess Life in 1969.Chess Trivia
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Horowitz. He founded Chess Review magazazine in 1932. Bernard (1807-1885) German-born painter and chess study composer. Hort.

In 1971 he was playing in a candidates match with Petrosian when he made a mistake in his 7th game. Hungarian Petrosian Nickname of Lajos Portisch. He is also a world-class player in Chinese chess.ChessCentral. Huebner.) Strongest German player since World War II.
www. Robert (1948.com
. played in the German Women’s Chess Championship. He said he was bothered by street noises. Huebner is a papyrologist and has a PhD.Chess Trivia
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Committee a week later. Juliane. Petrosian merely turned his hearing aid down. The resolution was drafted by Representative Charles Pashayan (R-CA). Hund. resigned and withdrew from the match. She was born 13 days after her mother.) West Germany’s first woman Grandmaster. Barbara (1959.

Hyde. Thomas (1634-1701) Author of De Ludis Orientalibus in 1694. He was also known as the world’s fastest speaker. he loses his head.Chess Trivia
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Hunter.com
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www. Huon of Bordeaux A romance written around 1200 describing a servant who plays chess against a princess for her hand in marriage. If he loses the game.ChessCentral. He was the first person to establish beyond doubt that chess originated in India. She finally lets him win. Charles (1922-1982) British correspondence champion in 1961 and International Master of Composition (1967).

Iceland had 6 Grandmasters in a country of only 250. He was a member of an underground www.000 inhabitants. He was gassed. Ilyin-Genevsky. starting from how each piece moved. Iceland Has the highest per capita chess population in the world. which took awy his memory. Founded in 1928 for the purpose of promoting correspondence chess.ChessCentral. He had to learn the game all over again.com
. Alexander (1894-1941) The Russian master who had to learn the game twice.Chess Trivia
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IFSB Internationalen Fernschachbund. He had previously been champion of Geneva where he added the city’s name to his own. It is the only country with more Grandmasters than International Masters (the United States in the 1960s also had more GMs than IMs). then shell-shocked in World War I. A government-run lottery helps finance chess and handball tournaments.

he went to Geneva where he performed party work for Lenin. Forbidden to re-enter any Russian school. 1851. the Germans bombed the barge. Alexander was the only one killed.Chess Trivia
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Bolshevik organization in high school. In 1941. while trying to escape from Leningrad on a barge with dozens of other passengers.com
.ChessCentral. London. The loser had to cut off his finger with a dagger and plunge his hand in a boiling ointment that cauterized the wound. Immortal Draw Game between Carl Hamppe and Philipp Meitner Immortal Game A name given by Falkbeer to the Anderssen-Kieseritzky game. India Chessplayers in the 10th century wagered their fingers in a game of chess. He organized the first USSR chess championship in 1920. He won the first Trade Unions Championship of the USSR in 1927. The 1982 Ladies Championship of www. During the October Revolution and Russian Civil War he was the head of the Moscow Reservists. which led to his expusion.

www. and 3rd place were all won by three sisters. International Woman Grandmaster Title created by FIDE in 1976. but they withdrew their support due to reduced oil revenues. and Milunka Lazarevic.com
. Indonesia The 1984 Olympiad was supposed to be held in Indonesia. Irena Levitina.Chess Trivia
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India 1st. the Khadilkars.ChessCentral. Ingo system The first rating system. It is the earliest known printed reference to chess. The first players to receive this title were Nana Alexandria. It was introduced by Anton Hosslinger in 1948 and named after his birthplace of Inglostadt. Nona Gaprindashvili. 2nd. Innocent Morality An allegory written in the 13th century which appeared in a manuscript collection of sermons of Pope Innocent III. The morality compares chess with life. Bavaria. the pieces representing different positions of men in society. Alla Kushnir.

Ayatollah Khomeini banned the game because “it hurts memory and may cause brain damage. Prior to that Iran. Tatai was 44 and seven time national chamwww. Wolfgang Heidenfeld. to play on the Italian Olympiad team. Israel In 1982 the Israel Chess Championship was stopped as several of its participants were called up for Army service in Lebanon.ChessCentral. where they defeated Ireland 4-0.Chess Trivia
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Iran The only country in the world that bans chess. played for South Africa. Italy The Italian Chess Federation refused to allow one of its best players. yet Ireland lost the match 0-4! That’s because the Irish Champion. Ireland In 1958 the reigning Irish Champion won his game at the Munich Olympiad. Stefano Tatai. was the only Arab country at the 22nd Olympiad in Israel. under the Shah.com
.” He also said chess contributes to a war-mongering mentality.

Ivan the Terrible (1530-1584) Keen chessplayer who died while playing chess.
www. The result was a very poor showing at the olympiad. with a chess-playing span of 85 years. Ivanov. Ivanov missed the Grandmaster title and qualifying for the Candidates by a half-point. thinking his opponent was a stong master. His opponent’s rating was later found out to be 1651. The Italian Chess Federation only wanted members that were age 30 or younger to represent Italy.) Defected from the Soviet Union.com
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pion. Walter (1870-1966) Master Emeritus who died at age 98. The 1980 Italian championship was delayed until 1981 because of an earthquake. Igor (1947. while representing Canada in the Toluca Interzonal.ChessCentral. Ivans. In 1982. His first game in the West was drawn after 14 moves.

Boris (1933.Chess Trivia
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Ivkov.”
www. in 1951.) Winner of the first World Junior Championship. held in England.ChessCentral. He is married to a former “Miss Argentina.com
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for many years. The casino management had to buy his ticket home.Chess Trivia
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J’adoubovic Nickname of Milan Matulovic. the Dutch painter Leo Nardus who.ChessCentral. In another event he handed his money to a friend and made him promise not to return it until after the chess tournament. saying “j’adoube” after he took the move back. His friend refused. In 1901 he won an international tournament at Monte Carlo and lost all his first place money in the casino the same evening the tournament ended. the lure of gambling proved too strong and he begged for the return of his money.com
. He took a losing move back against Bilek at the 1967 Sousse interzonal. Janowski. Janowski had a chess patron. David (1868-1927) Chess master and addicted gambler. He got away with it. However. Janowski was so infuriated that he sued his friend. supported him in chess. He lost his support when Janowski www.

When he lost the tournament he said. Their first national chess tournament took place in 1969. “You have deprived me of any alibi. How did you expect me to play good chess?” Janowski died penniless in a nursing home in Hyeres. At one tournament every one of his requests was granted and for the first he had nothing to complain about. thinking they were military codes. Japan The Japanese confiscated chess books during World War II.Chess Trivia
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called Nardus a chess idiot when Nardu suggested an alternate move during an analysis of one of Janowski’s games. www.) The first person to win the National Elementary and National Junior High Chess Championship in the same year (1980). Janowski was famous for his complaints which served as alibis when he lost.ChessCentral.com
. A subscription was raised to prevent his being buried in a pauper’s grave. Japan did not have an organized chess federation until 1968. John (1969. France. Jarecki.

After gaining entry of the vizier’s palace for the chess match. The Problem of Paul Morphy.ChessCentral. It was delivered to the British Psychoanalytical Society in 1930.Chess Trivia
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Jayyash Leader of a revolt in Southern Arabia in the late 11th century. Jones. Johner. His brother won it 6 times. It was won by Ulf Andersson. www. Johannesburg 1981 First Category 16 tournament. the most famous example of a single case study in the psychoanalytic discipline.com
. He disguised himself as an Indian faqir invited to play chess with the vizier of Zabid. Hans(1889-1975) Swiss International Master (1950) who won the Swiss Championship 12 times from 1908 to 1950. Ernest Psychoanalyst who wrote. the strongest ever held up to that date. he overcame his old enemy. Hans Johner was one time director of the Zurich Philharmonic Orchestra.

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www. She became the 7th Women’s World Champion and the first from Asia. Zsuza Polgar defeated her for the title in Spain in 1996.) Defeated Maya Chiburdanidze for the Women’s World Championship title in 1991 after a 15 game match in Manila. Xie (1971.ChessCentral.Chess Trivia
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Jun. She was the 6th ranked woman in the world.

Gata and father Rustam defected from the Soviet Union after playing in the 1989 New York International. Hans Swiss player who set the world blitz (5-minute game) continuous play record in 1981 after playing 60 hours and 39 minutes. the youngest since Fischer won it in 1957-58 at age 14. John (1937. Gata Kamsky won the USSR Junior Championship (under 18) at the age of 12. lost 79.Chess Trivia
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Kalish. He became a grandmaster at 16.S.) Born in Siberia. Kanel. Championship in 1991 at age 17. He had played an www. Gata (1974. He retired from chess and is in medical school. We won 320 games.ChessCentral.com
.286 moves. He won the U. and drew 31. The average rating of his opponents was 2222. Kamsky. He played 420 games and made 17.) Kalish has won the championship of Okinawa 25 consecutive times.

In 1978 he was named Soviet Union Sportsman of the Year and was personally decorated by President Breshnev.com
. drew 1. No Soviet opponent has ever beat him outside www.1 games per hour. Karpov. Karnamuk A Persian romance written in 600. Anatoly became a Candidate Master at the age of 11. Anatoly (1951. a Master at 15. an International Grandmaster at 19. He got the title in 1975 when Fischer refused to defend his title. an early form of chess. The most prominent opponent was Victor Korhnoi whom he won 1.) The first world champion to win the title without playing a chess match. Mona May(1914-1998) Played in 18 US Women’s Championships. It is the first Persian writing of chatrang. Karpov became World Champion before he became USSR Champion.Chess Trivia
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average of 7.ChessCentral. and lost 4 games. He never scored worse than 4th place while world champion. winning 7 of them. Karff. and world champion at 24.

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. In 1989 a poll in the British Chess Magazine showed the Karpov was the world’s most boring player. followed by Sammy Reshevsky. There is no mention of chess.ChessCentral. He became the first millionaire playing chess.Chess Trivia
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the Soviet Union.
www. He is the first world champion to be born in Asia. He is a member of the Supreme Soviet Commission for Foreign Affairs and the President of the Soviet Peace Fund. Kashdan. Karpov’s diploma thesis at the Leningrad State University was entitled: Spare time and its economic significance under Socialism. Ash Can” throughout the show. He has the most complete collection of postage stamps on the topic of chess and specializes in stamps with reproductions of paintings. Isaac Kashdan’s wife was asked to join a harem for 150 English pounds by Umar Khan at an Olympiad. He once appeared on Groucho Marx’s You Bet Your Life and Groucho called him “Mr. Isaac (1905-1985) Founded Chess Review in 1933. He received the Grandmaster title in 1954.

Baku 1979. His highest rating was 2810 after scoring 9 www.)
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Originally named Weinstein. he exceeded the Grandmaster norm and took first place as an unrated player. He was the first Soviet to do a Western commercial. In his first international tournament. Garry (1963. He became a grandmaster at 17. the youngest Soviet champion at 18 and the youngest world champion at 22 years.ChessCentral. He became the World Junior Champion in 1980 and co-champion of the USSR in 1981.Chess Trivia
Kasparov. 210 days.com
. His first FIDE rating was 2500.

ChessCentral. author of over 50 chess books.1 1/2 in a Category 15 tournament in Belgrade in 1989. He receive the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his chess services in 1985. Lubomir (1943. in 1769. Keene.Chess Trivia
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1/2 .) Winner of an international tournament representing the United States without ever setting foot in the U. and 104 draws). Kasparov-Karpov matches After five world championship matches. and organizer of many international chess matches. Kavalek.S.) British Grandmaster (1976). Farkas (1734-1804) Inventor of the first automation. Kasparov and Karpov have played 144 games with Kasparov leading 73-71 overall (21 wins. The Turk. He built it for the sole purpose of entertaining and mystifying the Empress Maria Theresa of Austria. For years he www. He was British Champion in 1971. at the time.com
. Kempelen. Raymond (1948. 19 losses.

000 people at his funeral www.com
. Keres. In 1783 Emperor Joseph II commanded him to display The Turk once again. When the Red Army liberated the country. Eventually. Soviet authorities planned initally to execute Keres.ChessCentral.” He had over 100.Chess Trivia
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labored to improve the science of hydraulics. He never became world champion but defeated nine world champions in his career. like my country. When asked why he never became world champion. he became so annoyed by the continuous stream of visitors that he dismatled the Turk. announcing that it had been damaged and could no longer be exhibited. They were all interested in The Turk. Paul (1916-1975) Estonian Grandmaster. he replied: “I was unlucky. He was Estonian Sportsman of the Year in 1962. In 1953 Paul Keres became the first sportsman of the year in chess in the Soviet Union. Botvinnik interceded by talking to Stalin and Keres was spared. designing fire engines and hydraulic pumps. But nobody was interested in those. He participated in German tournaments during World War II.

he was buried in a pauper’s grave because no one would contribute to his burial. Estonia. Only one person came to his funeral . The National Bank of Estonia issued a 5 krooni (5 crowns) note with a portrait of Paul Keres.a waiter at the Cafe. Lionel (1806-1853) Baltic-European mathematics teacher of International Master strength who was a regular at the Cafe de la Regence in Paris. Ratmir (1925. The King’s leap survived until the 17th www. provided it did not leap out of or over check. King’s leap In the 15th century the King was allowed to leap to any 3rd square on its first move.ChessCentral. King’s Gambit The first book on the King’s Gambit was published in 1706 by M. Kieseritzky. Caze. When he died penniless.) This grandmaster was once suspended for a year from tournament play because of conduct unbefitting a chess master (he was drunk).Chess Trivia
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in Tallin. Kholmov. He was not well liked.com
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ChessCentral. He became involved in banking and became a millionaire and chess patron. In 1937 he played 34 opponents blindfolded. Kolisch. It survived until the 19th century in Iceland. He became one of the world’s greatest blindfold players in chess history. George (1903. Knoppert. He moved to Vienna and met Albert Rothschild. Ignatz (1837-1889) In his early years he was the private secretary of the Russian Prince Urusov. winning 24 and drawing 10 in www. He later became a wandering chess professional.Chess Trivia
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century in England and France. From this move. Koltanowski.) Dean of American Chess and past President of the US Chess Federation. castling developed. Eric In 1985. It survived in Spain and Portugal up to 1750. Knight tour The number of possibilities of a knight’s tour is over 122 million.com
. played 500 games of 10-minute chess in 68 hours.

Victor (1931. He is a founding member of the World Chess Federation (FIDE) which formed in 1924. Yugoslavia. The round started at 3 pm. In the 1970 Chess Olympiad in Skopje. In 1991 Korchnoi was granted Swiss citizenship after 14 years of residency.) Four times Soviet champion and played on six of the USSR’s Olympic teams. Korchnoi. He defected to the West in July 1976. Alexander (1909-1990) Winner of the first USSR Correspondence Championship. Victor overslept and missed his round against Spain lost be default. after a tournament in Amsterdam. Igor.5 hours.ChessCentral. Victor Korchnoi’s son. In 1960 he played 56 consecutive blindfold games in a row.Chess Trivia
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13.com
. He was one of the leading trainers in the USSR during the 1950s and 1960s. In his 1980 match with www. Konstantinopolsky. He has won the Belgium championship 4 times. He has appeared in eight Candidates Matches. winning 50 and drawing 6. was sent to a Siberian labor camp for 30 months for refusing military service.

ChessCentral. Kotov. Korn. the youngest ever to beat a master in rated play.com
. His chess title was Chairman of the Chess Section of the Supreme Council www. Krush. Nikolai (1885-1938) Chess enthusiast responsible for persuading the Soviet government to support chess. Irena (1984. Krylenko.) Editor of Modern Chess Openings (MCO) and the only FIDE International Judge for Chess Endgame Compositions in North America.) In 1993 Irene Krush beat a master. Alexander (1913-1981) Awarded the Order of Lenin for an important invention relating to mortar. he had a bullet-proof screen put between him and the audience. Walter (1908. chief prosecuter for the revolutionary tribunals. He was Commissar for War in the first Bolshevik government. and later Commissar for Justice for the USSR. then Commander-in-Chief of the Russian armed forces.Chess Trivia
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Petrosian.

ChessCentral. and later.com
. In 1937 he was arrested and charged with retarding the development of chess. He thus became an International Master without ever being a master. Kurajica. Secretary of the Soviet Chess Federation. yet he was not even a master. Bojan (1947.Chess Trivia
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for Physical Culture of the Russian Federal Republic. cutting it off from the social and political life of the Soviet Union.) Winner of the 1965 World Junior Championship. He was ordered executed by Stalin as an enemy of the people. The title is an automatic award to the International Master title.
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singing.ChessCentral.” In 1960 she appeared on What’s My Line and on the cover of Sports Illustratated. Lisa (1938. women’s champion (1959-62. Lane Hickey. 1966). Labourdonnais spent his time spitting. Neither knew a word of the other’s language. the largest number of games ever played successively in match conditions. Queen Pawn. and laughing. two losses. then withdrew after one draw. She played 4 games in the Hastings Reserve tournament in 1961-62.) Former U.
www. She said she could not concentrate because she was “homesick and in love.com
. MacDonnell spent up to an hour and a half to make a single move.S. cursing. In 1964 she opened up her own chess club.Chess Trivia
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Labourdonnais-MacDonnell match Played 85 games. in New York. and an adjourned game.

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Lange, Max (1832-1899) Inventer of the helpmate in 1865 and the Max Lange Attack. Lanni, Diana One of the top ten women chess players in the US. She ran away from home to escape domestic turmoil, worked as a topless dancer and a prostitute. She entered a women’s tournament in Michigan and won. She was a drug addict and suicidal and wound up in Bellevue Hospital in New York. In 1980 she walked out of the hospital and ended up at the Chess Center in New York where she found a room and a job. Since then, she has spent most of her time playing chess. She was rated 2027 in the 1992 USCF Annaul Ratings List. Larsen, Bent (1935- ) Danish Grandmaster who now lives in Buenos Aires. In 1956 he played first board of the Danish team at the chess Olympiad in Moscow. He played so well that FIDE awarded him the title of Grandmaster without him being an International Master first. In 1966 when Larsen beat Geller in a match, it was the first time in a match that a www.ChessCentral.com

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Soviet Grandmaster had ever lost to a foreigner. Bent Larsen was the first GM to lose to a computer in a tournament competition, 1988. To supplement his income, he translated detectice stories into Danish. In 1953 Larsen labored all night on an adjourned game to find a winning line. Then he tried to get a few hours sleep. He lost the game because he had overslept and failed to appear on time. Lasa, Baron Tassilo von Heydebrand und der (1818-1899) Considered the top 2 or 3 in the world from 1845-1855. He never played in a tournament or formal match, but in offhand games he beat the world’s best players, including Staunton, Anderssen, and Lowenthal. He published the Handbuch des Schachspiels in 1843, the first complete review of openings in anylanguage. He was a Prussian diplomat and ambassador. Lasker, Edward (1885-1981) Became an International Master at the age of 75. Edward Lasker won the championship of Paris in 1912, the London championship in 1914, the New York City champiwww.ChessCentral.com

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onship in 1915, and the championship of Chicago in 1916. Edward Lasker had degrees in mechanical and electrical engineering. He invented and patented a breast pump to secure mother’s milk. At the age of 90 he played in a telex match between New York and London. He was a seventh cousin to Emanuel Lasker. Lasker, Emanuel (1868-1941)

Lasker took first place at Breslau in 1889 by accident. Another competitor, needing a draw or win for first place, had a won adjourned game. After adjournment he lost. It was later discovered that one of his pawns was www.ChessCentral.com

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knocked off the board between sealing and resumption of the game, which would have given him the winning advantage. As a result Lasker, who was considering giving up chess, won the event and the title of national master. Five years later he was world champion. He once tried to breed pigeons for poultry shows. He tried for many months and failed. He learned later that all the pigeons were male. Between 1901 and 1914 he played in only three tournaments. In 1908 he married at the age of 48 and became husband, father, and grandfather all at once. His wife, a few years older than he, was already a grandmother. He tried to have the tournament rules changes for the older player at the international level. He proposed that play should be stopped after 2 hours for a half hour adjournment. His theory was that gentle exercises or turning to other thoughts for awhile would reinvigorate the older brain. During World War I he invested his life savings in German war bonds and lost it all. He wrote a book declaring that Germany had to win World War I if civilization was to be saved. His Ph.D. dissertation of 1902 on ideal numbers became a cornerstone of 20th century algebra. He believed that one of his opponents, www.ChessCentral.com

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Tarrasch, had hypnotic powers and wanted to play him in a separate room. Lasker’s older brother, Berthold, won the New York State chess championship in 1902. Last Place The first time the last place finisher defeated the reigning world champion in the same event occurred in Hanover in 1983 when Wolfram Hartman defeated Karpov. Karpov suffered the same fate to last place finisher Torre in London 1984. Laucks, Forry (1897-1965) Founder and patron of the Log Cabin Chess Club. He collapsed and died after the 6th round of the U.S. Open in San Juan. Leary, Timothy Used chess sets as visual props for preparing classes at Harvard to receive the impact of LSD. He said, “Life is a chess game of experiences we play.” Lee, Edward At 14 he defeated 7 grandmasters in simultaneous exhibitions: Karpov, Korchnoi, Nunn, Speelman, Ftacnik, www.ChessCentral.com

was a Czech junior chess champion. Lenin. Jiri. Peter (1980.ChessCentral.com
. She was one of the eight finalists for the women’s world championship for 1983.) Female chess master who defected from the Bulgarian team on the eve of the last round of the Lucerne Chess Olympiad in 1982. and Kupreichik.) Hungarian player who became the youngest International Master in the world at age 12.Chess Trivia
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Kochiev. Lendl. Leko. Ivan Tennis super-star and chessplayer. Lemachko. Tatjana (1948.
www. He has also drawn against Korchnoi and Hort in two other exhibitions. Vladimir An avid chessplayer who used “Karpov” as one of his pseudonyms during his exile. His father.

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It was won by El Salvador. Lennox WBC Heavyweight Boxing Champion who plays chess every day while in training.com
.ChessCentral. Forty-eight nations sent their team to Haifa. Their FIDE delegate prowww. Israel.Chess Trivia
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Lewis chessmen Oldest known chess pieces in existence. They date back to 1150-1170. Seventy-eight pieces were found in a stone chamber in a sand bank on the west coast of the Isle of Lewis in 1831. There were 37 entrants. The most striking piece is the rook. carved from walrus ivory. Lewis. rather than a castle. Italy had a team in both olympics. Libya Site of the unofficial chess olympics in 1976 in protest to the main chess olympiad in Haifa. The pieces reside in the British Museum and the National Museum in Edinburgh. which is the form of a capatain afoot. Each team had its own car and driver and each team member received $8 a day. The pieces were discovered by a peasant who found a mysterious stone building buried under several feet of sand.

in 1991. Spain Site of the first category 17 tournament ever.S. with an average rating of 2658. Liverpool Mercury The first English newspaper to publish a chess column. This was the first tournament since 1981 that Kasparov failed to at least tie for first. Frankish ruler of Austrasia in 735. be barred from holding FIDE events and participating in FIDE meetings because the U.S. Linares. www.Chess Trivia
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posed that the U. The event was won by Ivanchuk. Living chess The first living chess played with people taking the part of chessmen is demonstrated in the court of Charles Martel. Literature The world’s first periodical devoted solely to chess literature was the Chess Reader in 1955. 1814. failed to grant a visa for a Libyian delegate.ChessCentral. The column first appeared on July 9.com
. 1813 and ended on August 20.

London 1927 The first of the series of international team competitions known as the Chess Olympiads. George’s Club were the organizers. Anderssen won a silver cup and 183 pounds. Longest Games The longest chess game is 269 moves (I. He was ordained a priest in 1967 by Cardinal Spellman. The lonwww. Belgrade 1989) which ended in a draw.com
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Lombardy.ChessCentral. He owed 1/3 of his winnings to Szen after a private agreement that if either were to gain first prize. he would share it with the other.) The first American to win an official world chess championship when he won the World Junior Championship in 1957 with a perfect 11-0 score. Sixteen countries participated. The tournament was held in conjunction with the Great Exhibition of Art and Industry of 1851. won by Hungary. Bill (1937. Nikolic Arsovic. London 1851 First international chess tournament ever held. Howard Staunton and the St.

Johann (1810-1876) Considered the best opening theorist of his day. Moreau lost all 26 games at the Monte Carlo tournament in 1903. Inventor of the demonstration board in 1857.Chess Trivia
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gest won game for White is 193 moves (Stepak Mashian. Losers The worst loss by a player was Macleod of Canada who lost 31 games in the New York double-round robin of 1889. Lev (1913-1976) Considered the greatest of all problem composers.
www.com
. He won over 70 first place prizes in problem composing contests. Lowenthal. Israeli Championship 1980). Col.ChessCentral. The longest won game for Black is 161 moves (Duras .Janowski. Loshinsky. San Sebastion 1911).

Sam (1841-1911)
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The most famous American chess composer. He modified an Eastern board game and popularized it as Parcheesi. He composed about 3.000 chess problems. He was known as “The Puzzle King.” He served as president of the New York Chess Club and organized the first international tournament on American soil.
www.ChessCentral.Chess Trivia
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com
. Repitition of Amores y Arte De Axedres published in 1497.
www.ChessCentral. Only 8 copies are known to exist.Chess Trivia
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Lucena. Lucerne Sight of the 1982 chess olympiad in Switzerland. Switzerland (home of the 1968 Olympiad). The Ugandan team went by mistake to Lugano. Luis Author of the oldest existing printed book on chess.

and fifth American Chess Congresses.ChessCentral. Mackenzie. Arthur (1861-1905) Chessplayer who composed chess problems when he was blind. Recognized as American chess champion from 1865 to 1890.Chess Trivia
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M
Mackenzie. They both featured the same key move. Maelzel. third. a problem submitted to a composing tournament was almost identical to another problem submitted by H.com
. Lane was also blind. Lane. By a greater coincidence. George (1837-1891) Winner of the second. H. He supposedly invented www. He was responsible for the popularity of the two-mover in the early 20th century. fighting for the North during the Civil War. He was a Lieutenant in the British army and a Captain in the US Army. Johann (1772-1838) Mechanical engineer who bought the Turk from Wolfgang von Kempelen’s son. By coincidence.

com
. The Chess Monthly. The first U. www.ChessCentral. founded in 1846. Prince Eugene de Beauharnais bought the Turk from Maelzel in 1811 for 30. The oldest existing chess magazine in the world is Deutsche Schachzeitung. Shakhmatnyi listok. the British Chess Magazine. The first Russian magazine.000 francs and Maelzel gave part of the money to Beethoven. The longest surviving English magazine. Maelzel was buried at sea in 1838 after dying on a ship bound from Cuba to America. was published by Tchigorin in 1876. No cash was handed over to the Prince. was started in 1881.S. Chess The first magazine devoted entirely to chess was Le Palamede. The Prince died but his heirs sued Maelzel for the balance. Magazine. founded by La Bourdonnais in 1836. was published by Daniel Fiske in 1857. Maelzel fled to America with the Turk to escape the debts and lawsuits. but Maelzel was to pay from any profit he might make.Chess Trivia
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the metronome and was a good friend of Beethoven. chess magazine. In 1817 he bought the Turk back from the Prince for the same sum.

5-1.Chess Trivia
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Makovetz. Tartakover. Mieses. Duras.com
. Marshall. Spielmann. which began on September 3. Bogoljubov. His bagwww. it had been located in Carnegie Hall. First place was 2000 marks ($500). 1817. The 19th congress of the German Chess Federation began on July 20 and stopped August 1. and Vidmar. Gyula (1860-1903) Editor of Hungary’s first chess magazine.ChessCentral. Janowski. Manchester Chess Club Oldest chess club in Britain.5). Only 11 of the scheduled 17 rounds were played. Alekhine won (9. from 1889 to 1894. Manhattan Chess Club Oldest chess club in America. Reti. Budapesti Sukkezende. Frank Marshall escaped to Amsterdam. Up to recently. followed by Vidmar and Spielmann. Players included Alekhine. Tarrasch. Mannheim Congress 1914 A series of chess tournaments in Germany when World War I broke out. which began in a cafe in lower Manhattan in 1877.

Geza (1870-1951) A waterworks engineer and math teacher who was one of the most successful players from 1899 to 1908. Supposwww. Mariotti.Chess Trivia
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gage showed up in New York fice years later with all of the contents still intact. Roger Long and Graham Croft played 189 games with Long winning 96 to 93. England played chess non-stop for 200 hours.com
. Maroczy. He was certified as medically unfit for military service and released after 6 weeks. Georg (1863-1923) Romanian-born Austrian of grandmaster strength. Marco. Alekhine was held in a German police station then a military prison. Marathon chess In 1983 two bus drivers from Bristol.ChessCentral. The Russian chessmasters find themselves all under arrest and the prize fund is cut in half. Tarrasch learned that his son was already killed in action. Sergio (1946 .) First and only Italian Grandmaster (1974). He was a very large powerful man and was referred to as the “strongest” chess player in the world.

In 1904 www. In 1922 he played 155 games simultaneously in Montreal.S. A week later he was able to replay 153 of the games from memory. and 8 losses after 7 hours of play. He won 82 games. lost 8. Marshall.ChessCentral. drew 15. He reigned as U. Champion for 30 years. but only defended his title once when he defeated Ed Lasker (5-4) in 1923. He was the first master to play more than 100 games simultaneously.Chess Trivia
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edly his ghost returned in 1985 and has been playing Korchnoi thru a Swiss medium. He started the Marshall Chess Club in 1922 to rival the Manhattan Chess Club. He scored 126 wins.com
. 1924). Frank (1877-1944) The first American to defeat a Soviet player in an international tournament (New York. He claimed he played at least one game of chess every day for 57 years.C. In 1916 he played 105 players at the National Press Club in Washington. D. Marseillaise Chess A variation of chess invented in 1925 in which each player plays two moves at a time. 21 draws. He thought he was losing his memory. What bothered him was forgetting the other two games.

Matanovic. From 1990 to 1994 he was FIDE Executive Deputy President. Aleksandar (1930.S.ChessCentral. He announced his retirement in 1936 as U. 7 months (1994). The oldest player to become a master was Oscar Shapiro. at age 74. when he won a match with Jackson Showalter. He has won the Yugoslav championship 3 times.Chess Trivia
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he was proclaimed U.com
.) Yugoslav Grandmaster (1955) and chief editor of Chess Informant. www. Martz. He was a car salesman. Pillsbury died in 1906. Bill (1945-1983) Played 104 consecutive tournament games without a loss.S. He held degrees in mathematics and law but never practiced. Chess Champion. the champion before Pillsbury. Master The youngest master was Jordy Mont-Reynaud at 10 years. Chess Champion when Pillsbury declined a match with him because of illness. Marshall did not officially accept the title until 1909.

In 1967 he took back a move without saying J’adoube (I adjust) and drew his www. The longest running annual match is the Oxford-Cambridge match. and her brother.Chess Trivia
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Match The first over-the-board match of consequence was the McDonnell-La Bourdonnais match in 1834. Milan (1935. the Count of Palatine. he didn’t say J’adoube). the Holy Emperor. Match of the Century The first USSR vs. Otto III. Rest of the World match held in Belgrade in 1970.com
. which has been held every year since 1873. Mathilda Daughter of Otto II who was “won” as a result of a chess match between Ezzo.ChessCentral. Matulovic.) GM Matulovic of Yugoslavia was sentenced to 9 months imprisonment for killing a woman by dangerous driving (No. Mate There are 8 different ways to mate in two moves and 355 different ways to mate in three moves.

at the age of 75.S. Henrique (1952.com
. Open chess tournaments than any other person (37 times). he mad a formal protest. He is sometimes referred to as J’adoubovic. During his candidates’ match with Petrosian. Amateur Championship in 1961. McKenna.Chess Trivia
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game with Bilek in the Interzonal. Edgar (1914-1991) Participant of more U. Patrick Currently on death row at the Ely State Prison in Nevada for killing a jail cellmate after an argument over a chess game. Mecking. www. Mechanics Institute Oldest chess meeting place in the United States. founded in 1854. He won the U.) Brazilian grandmaster. McCormick. and again in 1990. He was champion of Brazil at 13 and won the South American Zonal at 14. Formerly the Mercantile Library in San Francisco. it was not incorporated as a chess club in its own right.ChessCentral.S. In World War II he was a cryptographer.

Menchik-Stevenson.Chess Trivia
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He accused the formal world champion of kicking the table. and rolling a coin on the table. Olga Rubery (world challenger in 1935 and 1937). and the last one as a Briton.H. R. the next five as a Czech. He retired from chess in 1978 when he contracted myasthenia gravis. Stevenson.ChessCentral. Vera (1906-1944) World Woman Champion Vera Menchik defended her title six times. She died in Kent in June 1944 after a German V-1 rocket hit her home. She played in her first world championship as a Russian. a debilitating muscle disease. stirring the coffee too loudly. Vera’s husband. was the secretary of the British Chess Federation who died in www. shaking the chessboard. killing her mother and her sister.com
. He returned to chess in 1991. 4 draws.S. Mecking kicked back at the table and made noises of his own. scoring 78 wins. Petrosian responded by turning his hearing aid off. He went to the referee twice to complain that Petrosian was breathing too loudly. ond only 1 loss. Mrs. In 1927 she won the first Women’s World Chess Championship with 10 1/2 out of 11.

C. Milner-Barry. Mir Sultan Khan. Menchik Club Players who lost to Vera Menchik. He operated it from the cellar of the tournament hall. Lajos Steiner. O’D.ChessCentral. Other members included Max Euwe. H. Frederich Saemisch. In the 1930s Albert Becker said if anyone should lose to this woman. Gunsberg was the operator. It entered the County Chess Association held in England in 1878 and won.com
. Vera was serving on the editorial staff of “Chess” as games editor. Frederick Yates.G. Mephist was shown for 12 months only and then broken up. Mephisto The best of the automations. Sir George Thomas. William Winter. Sammy Reshevsky. and Jacques Mieses (who lost to her four times in a match). Harry Golombek. Alexander. Gumpel. Mephisto was built by C. At the time of her death. offering to www. His was the first member. When playing with ladies it would obtain a winning position and then lose the game. It was operated from another room by electro-mechanical means. Edgar Colle.Chess Trivia
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1943. he would be a member of the Menchik Club.

Mexico In the 1930s the Mexican government offered all foreign chess masters appointments as chess instructors in the Army.ChessCentral. Alekhine and Capablanca did not accept their rank. www. After he had won.Chess Trivia
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shake hands afterwards. He was the first British player to receive the Grandmaster title. Reuben Fine and Kashdan were made Lieutenants. Mieses. who was two years older than he. Mephisto was first exhibited at the Westminster Aquarium in London ion 1876. and earned an International Master (IM) norm by scoring 7-4 in the Dortmond Open. Huebner. Mephisto Portorose One of the strongest commercially available chess microcomputers. Jacques (1865-1954) Born Jakob Mieses but he changed his name to sound more elegant. Kostich was made a Colonel.com
. won the West German blitz championship. Van Forrest. Jacques played a game against the Dutch master. and Bronstein in simultaneous exhibitions. In 1990 it defeated Karpov. When he was in his 84.

in 1976. He won the World Junior Championship at Manila in 1974.” As a chess master.com
. thus making it the shortest game ever played. Milner-Barry. He once defeated the World Othello Champion at his own game.Chess Trivia
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Mieses rose from the board and said.) English player of IM strength who was one of the code-breakers of World War II. He later became Under-Secretary of the Treasury in England.) The first English-born player to become a grandmaster for over-the-board play. He received an Honorary Master of Arts Degree for ches from Sheffield University. Miles.ChessCentral. “Youth has been victorious. he was active for 60 years (1888-1948). This was the first time a game was agreed drawn in International competition without making a single move.
www. Sir Philip Stuart (1906. In 1975 he agreed to a draw against Reuben without making a move. Anthony (1955.

ChessCentral. Mont-Reynaud. 7 months. His prize was a gold medal and a new car fresh from the “Lada” factory. won by an untitled player. Moonraker James Bond novel by Ian Fleming which contains references to Paul Morphy.) World’s youngest master (1994) at 10 years. The USSR championship was an 11-round Swiss. Jordy (1983.Chess Trivia
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Minasyan. Artashes Winner of the 58th and last USSR Championship. held in Moscow in 1991. Twenty-seven Grandmasters and 29 International Masters participated.com
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He imagined himself persecuted by his relatives and went into a state of seclusion. Morphy had hats and cigars named after him.ChessCentral. He once attacked a person in the street and challenged him to a duel to the death to settle an imagined wrong. He thought his food was poisoned or that someone was out to kill him.Chess Trivia
Morphy. He had a fetish with women’s shoes. “I have examined the contents of this watch and find it to be made of 100 percent www. Paul (1837-1884)
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The Pride and Sorrow of Chess. He was the first sports figure to issue a commercial endorsement when he declared of a watch.com
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Van Buren toasted Morphy as ‘The Chess Champion of the World. Oliver Wendell Holmes. Samuel Morse. Mouret. Jacque (1787-1837) Operator of The Turk from 1819 to 1824. he played Anderssen from his hotel room and won 7-2.com
. Herman Steiner spent 75 minutes over his second move. When he returned to New York. the magazine Palamede re-published Mouret’s disclosures.ChessCentral. His medical treatment consisted of being leeched. www. he was suffering from the flu. he was greeted by Longfellow. In 1836. the former President’s son. He sold the secret of how The Turk operated to the Magazin Pittoresqu in 1834. and John van Buren. He lost four pints of blood and was too weak to leave his hotel bed. This was the first authentic revelation of the Autmaton’s secret. So.’ It was the first time that expression had been used. Move David Bronstein took 50 minutes to make his first move. He was a nephew of Philidor.” When he arrived in Paris to play Anderssen.Chess Trivia
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genuine machinery.

Hungary won without conceding a single drawn match. Twenty-two countries and 208 participants entered. www. The sailor was eventually acquitted of murder and charged with accidental death instead. The German Chess Federation wanted to organize an Olympiad as a counterpart to the Olympic Games at Berlin. The sailer struck the spectator with a broken beer bottle and struck a jugular vein. But since the German Chess Federation was not part of FIDE.Chess Trivia
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In 1980 an International Master spent 2 hours and 20 minutes before making his 7th move. Munich was chosen since its local chess club was celebrating its centenary. A total of 1680 games were played in this event of teams with eight players and two reserves.ChessCentral.com
. the event was not recognized as belongiing to the official series of Olympiads. Murder and chess In 1960 a sailor got in a fight with a spectator in a Greenwich Village bar when the spectator criticized the sailor’s chess game. Munich 1936 Considered the extra Chess Olympiad.

www. Aristotle. Greeks. Palamedes. Diomedes. Shatenscha. Attalus. He was concerned about revealing his opening strategy.Chess Trivia
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Murshed. His is the first and only Grandmaster (1986) from Banglasdesh. Xerxes. In 1964 Bobby withdrew his manuscript before it went to press. Niaz (1966. Shem.) Won the Bangladesh championsip at age 12 years and 309 days. Hermes. Fischer’s original title was My Life in Chess.ChessCentral. and 15 as well.com
. He had to buy his way out of the contract with Simon & Schuster. becoming the youngest winner of a national federation. Zenobia. Mythical Inventors of Chess Mythical inventors of chess include Japhet. Lydus and Tyrrhenus. Semiramis. Adam. Five years later he updated his original work of 52 games to My 60 Memorable Games and had Larry Evans collaborate on the book. then My Memorable Games 60 Toiunament Struggles. My 60 Memorable Games Bobby Fischer’s modern classic which almost never got published. 14. He won the Bangladesh championship at age 13. Ulysses. King Solomon.

He then played 222 opponents simultaneously. he won 39 games. He won the British championship in 1904. When he lost he knocked all the pieces from the board and yelled. over-the board.Chess Trivia
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Najdorf.com
. In 1943 he played 40 games blindfolded. Napoleon (1769-1821) Played The Turk in 1806 in Berlin. “Bagawww. William (1881-1952) English-born US player of GM strength.Brazil. Miguel (1910-1997) Polish-born player who stayed in Argentina after the outbreak of World War II and became a naturalized citizen of Argentina five years later. drew 4. drew 12 and lost 8 games. 1945 he played 45 opponents simultaneously blindfolded in Sao Paulo. In January. winning 202. and lost 2. After 23 hours and 30 minutes of play.ChessCentral. Napier. He changed his first name from Mieczyslaw to Mendel to Miguel. He married Pillsbury’s niece.

giving out a record 375 trophies.ChessCentral. he willed that his heart be cut out and placed inside a chess table.Chess Trivia
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telle. The first National Junior High began in 1973. The first National Elementary began in 1976. When Napoleon died.com
. National Chess Centre Largest chess club in London with 700 members until it burnt down in 1940 after a German air raid. He wrote the first chess book in the Tatar language. Tennessee. National Elementary Championship In 1992 the National Elementary Championship held in Knoxville. Neimetdinov.” then stormed out of the room.
www.201 participants.) First USSR master in chess and checkers. Rashid (1912. had a record 1. National Scholastics The first National High School Championship began in 1969.

In 1944 the New York State Championship was called off because IBM. who were to be the hosts. New York 1869 The New York 1859 had 48 players who played each other twice in a round-robin. It is the earliest evidence of chess among the Greeks.256 games were played.Chess Trivia
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New York 1857 Also known as the American Chess Congress. it was the first American chess tournament to determine the national champion. the largest individual tournament ever held. government to cancel all conventions to reduce the burden of traveling facilities for the war.com
.ChessCentral. were requested bu the U. 2. 1 loss. www. and 3 draws. It was won by Paul Morphy with 14 wins. New York State Championship America’s longest running state championship which began in 1878.S. Nicephorus Emperor of Byzantium who was introduced to chess (zatrikon) in 802.

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Nightrider A Fairy chess piece that makes continuous knight leaps in a straight line in one direction to move or capture until it is blocked. Nimzovich. he jumped up on the table and www. He would stand on his head during chess events and did exercises in the tournament room. Aron (1886-1935)
Founder of the hypermodern movement in chess and author of My System.ChessCentral. After losing a game.

for the given name of an unknown person. Winston Churchill (1953-Literature).com
. Nescio Nomen. “Why must I lost to this idiot?” He had business cards printed which read. ‘A. He twisted his leg around the leg of his chair and then. having made his move." He once broke a leg while playing chess.N. Boris Pasternak (1958-Literature).Chess Trivia
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yelled. Gerard Debrem (1983-Economics).N. leaped up. Henry Kissinger (1973-Peace). only to crash to the floor in pain with a broken leg. Nobel Prize winners and chessplayers Samuel Becket (1969-Literature). Willy Brandt (1971-Peace). Elias Canetti (1981-Literature). John Cornforth (1975-Chemistry).ChessCentral. a Latin phrase meaning name unknown. Nimzovich: Candidate for the World Championship of Chess and Crown Prince of the Chess World. www. Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1982-Literature). Albert Einstein (1921-Physics). N. William Golding (1983-Literature). Sinclair Lewis (1930-Literature). Menachem Begin (1978-Peace). It has been customary to use N. Robert Robinson (1947-Chemistry).

best performance rating in the Olympiad. he received 3 gold medals: best score on board 2.Chess Trivia
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Nunn.com
. and got his doctorate in math at 23.
www. In the 1984 Thessaloniki Olympiad.) British Grandmaster who went to Oxford at age 15. graduated at 18. and winner of the problem-solving contest. John (1955.ChessCentral.

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O’Kelly de Galway. Alberic (1911-1980) In 1962 he became the first grandmaster of over-the-board and correspondence chess. Oldest Recorded Game The oldest recorded game in existence comes from a 10th century manuscript. In 1955 he arrived late to participate in the annual Hastings tournament in England. He is the Secretary General of the Icelandic Parliament.com
. No rooms could be found for him so he spent his first night in a cell at the Hastings police station as a guest to the local police.) Iceland’s first Grandmaster and former FIDE president (1978-82). Fridrik (1935. He won the third World Correspondence Championship (1959-62). www. Olafsson.ChessCentral. The oldest game recorded in the modern style is between Francisco de Castelliz and Narcisi Vinoles in the 15th century.

Romania. At the 1976 Olympiad in Buenos Aires. The youngest participant of the Olympiad was 10 year-old Heidi Cueller of Guatemala. Prior to that. at age 90 at the 1984 Olympiad in Thessaloniki. The offer was not taken up. Yugoslavia. win over the USSR was in 1984 at Thessaloniki.ChessCentral. In 1982 12 year-old Kien Tjing-Joe played for Surinam. The oldest player to participate in an Olympiad is Gudju. 11 year-old Schermann of the Virgin Islands played at Siegen in 1970. www. Greece. He is the sole survivor of the group that formed FIDE and played in the 1924 Paris Olympiad. The first U. a member of a Middle East team trid to buy one of the girls working at the site for $1 million.com
. The first Women’s Olympiad was held in 1957. Only four teams showed up: Hungary.Chess Trivia
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Olympiads The first official Olympiad began in London in 1927. who played on their women’s team in 1986 in Dubai.S. and Germany. an Olympiad was held in Budapest in 1926 with the rules that only amateurs could participate.

Number of Possible There are 400 different possible positions after one move each. The first woman to play on a man’s team was Mary Gilchrist who played for Scotland in the 1937 Olympiad. In 1950 Madame Chade de Silans played for France. There are over 9 million different possible positions after three moves each. The number of distinct 40-move games is far greater than the number of electrons in the observable universe. Openings. None of these countries finished with a minus score and three of the countries from the former Soviet Union took the Gold. and Bronze.ChessCentral.com
.084 different possible positions after two moves each. In 1992 when the Soviet Union broke up. There are 72.Chess Trivia
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The US is the only country to defeat the USSR twice in the Chess Olympiad. instead of one team.
www. 12 of the 102 teams were from the previous Soviet Union. Silver. There are over 288 billion different possible positions after four moves each.

got its name during the New York 1924 tournament. The next day Tartakover played 1.Chess Trivia
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Orangutan Opening This opening (1. also known as Sokolsky’s Opening. Oscar The World Chess Oscar was founded in December 1967 by Jordi Puig for chess journalists to select the outstanding player of the year. b4 against Maroczy. Oxford University Chess Club Oldest university chess club in Britain. encountering Suzan the orangutan. when grandmaster Tartakover visited the Central Park Zoo.
www. b4).com
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Thomas (1737-1809) American Revolutionist saved by a game of chess.) Grandmaster who was imprisoned in Czechoslovakia after openly protesting the Soviet occupation of his land in 1968. rather than the execution. His wife went to a cafe frequented by Robespiere and defeated him in a game of chess. Paine.com
. Tom Paine wrote The Rights of Man and Common Sense. Robespiere challenged her again and promised to grant any wish she made if she defeated him again. Ludek (1924.
www.ChessCentral. of King Louis XVI and about to be guillotined in Paris in 1794. He was beaten and suffered a broken skull and backbone. She again won and got her husband’s life spared.Chess Trivia
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Pachman. Paine was arrested for favoring the exile.

Karpov at the Zlatoust Palace. founded by La Bourdonnais in 1836. The Chess Players.Chess Trivia
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Painting The first painting with a chess theme was a painting by a Venetian artist in 1490.ChessCentral. He has a PhD in Theoretical Physics and is a professor of geophysics. and Kasparov at the Baku Palace. Palciauskas. Palamede.) Winner of the 10th World Correspondence Championship (1984). found in every Soviet city. called. an ancient Greek who was believed to have made many inventions. Le The first magazine devoted entirely to chess. including chess. Palace of Young Pioneers Soviet children’s sports school which has a chess club.com
. Smyslov at the Moscow Palace. Over 5 million children take part in these Pioneer Chess Clubs. Polugaevsky at the Kuibyshev Palace. Tigran Petrosian got his early training at the Tbilisi Palace. Victor (1941. The periodical was named after Palamades. www.

advancing two squares on its first move instead of one. was first introduced in Spain in 1280. Pawn The new pawn move. held in conjunction of the Olympic games. and still common in Germany www.Chess Trivia
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Pan-Am Intercollegiate America’s oldest team-on-team competition. to make a mess of. From the German verb patzen. The individual winner was Mattison of Latvia. Fifty-four participants came from all over the world. Canada and Ireland were each represented by one player only.ChessCentral. Starting a game by making two pawn moves before the opponent moved was common in Germany and Holland up to the 16th century. The two representatives from Russia were refugees living in Paris. begun in 1946. Paris 1924 First world team competition. The team winner was Czechoslovakia. Patzer Weak chess player.com
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In some countries a player could promote a pawn to an enemy piece so as to force stalemate. the pawn remained a pawn until a capture was made. Pawn Promotion In the 15th century. A related law stated that promotion could only be a piece that had been captured. Steinitz was the leading advocate of this dummy pawn law. www. In France and Germany.ChessCentral.com
. Up until 1903 a pawn. The current law in pawn promotion was established in 1851 at the first international tournament in 1851. the pawn could only be promoted to the rank of Queen. Pawns capture straight ahead in Chinese and Japanese chess. If no piece had been captured. pawns have started on the 3rd rank instead of the 2nd. promotion to allow more than one queen was considered improper because it symbolized adultry. may remain a pawn.Chess Trivia
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in the late 19th century. In parts of Asia. As late as the 1870’s you could promote a pawn and declare it a “dummy” with no powers. promotion was limited to any piece which had been lost. upon reaching the 8th rank. In Spain and Italy in the 17th century.

He has a doctorate in psychology and his father was a distinguished geneticist.ChessCentral.com
. Penquite. He turned to correspondence chess after that. Jonathan (1933. John Highest rated USCF correspondence player with a rating of 2939. The game was played at Zandvoort in Holland. He is one of the top correspondence chess players in the world. In 1970 he collapsed at the Siegen Olympiad from nervous tension. He won the British Junior Ch and London Championship in 1949 at age 15. Penrose. www.Chess Trivia
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PBS The most popular PBS TV show aired was the 1972 Fischer-Spassky chess match. Pearl of Zandvoort The name given to the 26th game of the World Championship match between Euwe and Alekhine in 1935. winning 58 straight correspondence games.) English International Master who has won the British chess championship a record 10 times (1958-63 and 1966-69).

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. Bruce score 8-0 in the 1951 British Ladies’ Championship. R. Perlis. He died of exposure in an Alpine mountaineering accident. Persia In 638 Persia was conquested by Islam under Caliph Omar. Julius(1880-1913) Polish-born Austrian lawyer and player of Grandmaster strength. Mrs. as the game is spread throughout the rest of the world.Chess Trivia
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Percival A romance written by Chrestien de Troyes. Gauvain.ChessCentral. He uses a chessboard as a shield and the lady throws the chess pieces at the intruders as they make their escape. This is considered the most important development in the history of chess. is discovered in the company of a lady. Tramner scored a perfect 11-0 score in the 1949 British Ladies’ Championship. Perfect Scores Miss E.
www. The hero.

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Petroff. which he won when he defeated Botvinnik in 1963. Alexander (1794-1867) The first strong player Russia produced. In 1972 at the Skopje Olympiad he lost a game on time to Hubner. his first loss on time in his whole career. “If I had known that. chess writer and chess composer. When he was later told that the incident had been shown on TV. Tigran (1929-1984) Former world champion. Between 1968 and 1975 he never lost more than a single game in any tournament. Petrosian’s wife put the blame on his trainer.ChessCentral.” His first official match that he played was for the World Championship. a higher fraction than any other World Champion. He received less than $2.000 for winning the world chess championship in 1966. Alexey Suetin.com
. When he lost his match with Fischer in 1971. Petrosian. He drew more than half his total games of chess. theoretician. I would definitely have smashed the clock. He was Russia’s first master. and slapped him. www. he said.

Philadelphia In December. partly by marrying a second wife over 50 years younger than himself. Philidor was still defeating his opponents with pawn odds at age 69. 1826 Maelzel brought the Turk to Philadelphia. Vladimir (1907-1945) Four-time Latvian champion. T-shirts. Andre was a child of that second marriage. They have outlawed slippers.com
. Over 100 members enrolled themselves in the chess club in the first week.ChessCentral.Chess Trivia
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Petrov. Philately The first postage stamp depicting a chess motif was issued in Bulgaria in 1947. and www. Andre (1726-1795) His father was the royal music librarian who begat 20 children. The excitement generated by the mysterious Turk was responsible for the formation of the first chess club in Philadelphia. He died in a prison camp. Philippines The Philippine Chess Federation has a dress code for chessplayers. Philidor.

Photograph The first known photograph of chess players was taken by Fox Talbot. The Philippine government was willing to pay $5 million for a Fischer-Karpov match. President of the Marshall Chess Club. They were the only nation to send a team to the 1976 Olympiad in Haifa and the “Against Israel Olympiad” in Tripoli. www. but with an Arabic inscription. Piece Earlist known chess pieces is dated in the eighth century. and the largest one that had ever been turned down. He was the organizer director of the great New York 1924 International Tournament.Chess Trivia
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vests in their chess events. former New York State Champion and Manhattan Chess Club Champion. It is a carved King from an Indian type of chessman. Libya. the second biggest purse in sports history. He played in chess tournaments for over 70 years. Phillips. in 1843.ChessCentral.com
. Harold (1874-1967) President of the USCF from 1950-54. father of the calotype process.

www.ChessCentral. The authorities prosecuted and fined the actors and Middleton went to prison. whose predecessor was portrayed on stage as a Black Knight.com
. The play presented eminent political persons in the guise of chessmen. In 1900 he went on a seven month nation-wide tour in which he gave over 150 exhibitions and travelled 40. From 1890 to 1900 Pillsbury worked the automaton Ajeeb in New York. Players The most players in one tournament is 1251 at the 1985 World Open. Play In 1624 a play called Game at Chess by Thomas Middleton appeared in England at the Globe theater. He was considered one of the top 10 checker players in the country.Chess Trivia
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the list forward and backward.000 miles. It also satirized Prince Charles’s Spanish wedding. The play was stopped at the protest of the Spanish ambassador. He was able to recall the list the following day. Pillsbury died of syphilis in 1906 at the age of 34. It played to packed houses for 9 days running.

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PLO The Palestine Liberation Organization is a provisional member of FIDE. and 27 days (Fischer was a grandmaster at age 15 years. 6 months.
www. She made her third and final GM norm by winning the Hungarian Championship in 1991.) Grandmaster at age 15 years. At age 13 she was the World Under 14 Champion for boys and FIDE’s highest rated woman. winning 7 games and drawing one game.com
. and 1 day after the Portoroz Inerzonal in 1958). In 1986 at the age of 9 she won the unrated section of the New York Open. At age 12 she was rated 2555 and was awarded the Woman Gm title. Pocket Set The first pocket set was devised by Peter Roget in 1845. Polgar.younger than Fischer or Kasparov. 4 months. At age 11 she was rated 2350 and earned an International Master title . Judit (1976.ChessCentral.

She first played in the British Ladies Championship in 1912. This topped Susan from the top spot to second behind the Soviet women’s titleholder. Postal rates In 1947 the U. She won it in 1948 at the age of 76. At age 12 she was rated over 2300 in Hungary and 2245 FIDE rating. the oldest player ever www. She won the Budapest Under-11 Championship at age four and a half. In 1987 FIDE gave 100 free rating points to every woman except Susan on the world ranking list. finishing 2nd. USCF felt that the rates would increase the cost of postal chess so much as to discourage the practice of correspondence chess.S.ChessCentral. Chess Federation urged all chessplayers to write to their Congressmen to protest a bill to increase postal card rates from one cent to two cents.com
. Zsuzsa (1969. Price. Judith Edith (1872-1956) Five-time British Ladies Champion.) Winner of the first Women’s Cadet (under age 16) Championship in 1981.Chess Trivia
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Polgar.

Prisons and chess In 1960 Bobby Fischer gave a simultaneous exhibition at Rikers Island prison. He defeated Stanley in a match.com
. he accepted a silver pitcher. giving odds of pawn and move. Elaine Saunders (1926. and a silver tray. She was the woman’s world chess championship challenger in 1927 and 1933. A week later a second prisoner escaped after a chess tournament. “I’m afraid we won’t be invited back to the university if this keeps up. four goblets.400 inmates watched the exhibition and the prison band played. Instead.) British Ladies Champion and World under-21 Ladies Champion at age 13.Chess Trivia
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to win a national championship.ChessCentral. In 1971 a prisoner failed to return to Western Penitentiary from a chess match at Carnegie-Mellon University. Morphy gave the $100 prize money to Stanley’s wife and www.” Pritchard. The warden remarked. Prizes The $300 first place money for the first American Chess Congress was refused by Morphy. He defeated all 20 prisoners while 2.

Championship was $1. Hundred and fifteen years later in 1960 the first place prize for the U. That was less than the first official world championship match between Steinitz and Tchigorin. It wasn’t until the 1890 Steinitz-Gunsberg world championship match that the loser took a share of the prize money. he only got $1.S.000 francs and presented to the winner by the Emperor Napoleon III. 1867. In a tournament in Ohio in 1983. In 1845 the first place prize for the U. she named her next daughter Pauline. www. At Paris. with Steinitz receiving $2.ChessCentral.400. the profit of the event went to the Ohio Nuclear Weapons Freeze campaign.000.000.com
. The largest tournament prize fund was $150.Chess Trivia
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children. As a mark of gratitude.000. At the same time in a metropolitan event.S. The first place prize for the winner of the Tarrasch-Mieses match in 1916 was a half-pound of butter. When Spassky won the world championship three years earlier. the winner was given a keg of schmaltz herring. 1st prize was a vase worth 5.200 for the 1985 World Open. When Fischer won the world championship. he got $250. This amount exceeded the sum total of awards presented for all previous 27 title matches held since 1886.

com
. He learned the moves at 8 and beat the stongest players in New Orleans at 11.ChessCentral. first place was three shirts. Problems. It was won by Walter Grimshaw. Prodigy The first child prodigy of chess was Paul Morphy. Reshevsky was taught the moves at 4 and was able to play a blindfold game at age 8. In 1295 Nicholas de St.D. Hans Kmoch won them. In a blitz tournament with Nimzovich and Hans Knoch playing.000. The longest solution to a composed problem requires 292 moves. The first study-composing tournament was held in 1862 and won by Bernhard Horwitz. the first great compilation of chess problems.Chess Trivia
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Championship was still $1. The earliest known European collections of chess problems were copied ath the English monasteries of Abbotsbury and Cerne Abbey in Dorset around 1250. The first problem-solving chess contest was held in London in 1854. Max www. Nicholai wrote the Bonus Socius. Chess The first composed chess problem was by the caliph Mutasim Billah of Baghdad around 840 A.

Both Purdy’s father-in-law Spencer Crakenthorp. In 1951 he was the champion of Australia. highest ever by a 13-year-old. Capablanca beat the Cuban champion in a match at 12. Kasparov won the USSR junior championship at 12.Chess Trivia
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Euwe learned the game at 4 and won a tournament at 10 with a 100% score. the first professional player to teach chess in England. Cecil (1906-1979) Winner of the first world correspondence chess championship in 1955. Purdy. His son was the junior champion of Australia. Professor of Chess Nickname of Jacob Sarratt.com
. FIDE master Michael Adams of England had a rating of 2405 in 1986. Neaz Murshid won the National Championship of Bangladesh at 11.ChessCentral. He won the Australian championship four times and held the Australian Correspondence Championship for 16 years in a row. Henrique Mecking was the Champion of Brazil at 13 and tied for first place in the South American championship at 14. www. Arturo Pomar was the champion of the Balearic Islands at 11.

ChessCentral. His lasts words were. “I have a win.Chess Trivia
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and his son John have been champions of Australia.com
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www. but it will take some time. He died of a heart attack while playing a game of chess.

it could only move to one adjacent diagonal square. El Ajedristica. Queen’s Gambit In the 1927 World Championship Match. Early rules in some countries did not allow a promotion of a pawn to a second queen on the board because that was thought of as promoting bigamy and not allowed. It automatically played the endgame of King and Rook against King from any position without any human intervention.ChessCentral. the Queen’s Gambit Declined was played in 32 out of 34 games. Quevedo. Luis Torres y (1852-1936) Spanish engineer who built the first true automaton. www.Chess Trivia
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Queen Originally called mantri (a minister or counsellor). By 1475 the Queen obtained its present power of moving along the ranks and files or diagonals. the Queen could leap three squares. When chess came to Europe.com
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) Argentine Grandmaster who.Chess Trivia
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Quinteros. Quinteros was the first grandmaster to visit South Africa since 1981. in 1987. Sun City and Johannesburg. Miguel (1947. He is a personal friend of Bobby Fischer and helped launch Fischer’s Random Chess in Buenos Aires in 1996. was barred from playing in FIDE events for three years because he played in South Africa.
www.com
.ChessCentral. He gave simultaneous exhibitions in Cape Town. He is married to a former Miss Philippines.

Tied for first place in the 1934 USSR championship. Stuart (1970.com
.S.) Became a Master at the age of 11 years. Junior Championships. Junior Open Championship.S. Junior High School Championship and the U. Ilya (1891-1942) Russian player of GM strength.Chess Trivia
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Rabinovich. He has participated in a record seven U. He won the 1982 $1. 10 months in 1981. He tied for first place in the 1989 U. despite being the lowest rated player.ChessCentral. Championship. Racknitz. taught by his older brother.S. He learned the game a few weeks prior to his 9th birthday.000 Aspis Prize after winning the U. Rachels. He published his www.S. Freiherr Joseph Friederich von In 1789 von Racknitz built an Automaton similar to Kemplen’s The Turk to demonstrate that such a machine could be operated by a hidden player. Died of malnutrition during the siege of Leningrad.

Ambassador Averill Harriman officiated the match in Moscow. D. Radio Match The 1945 USA-USSR Radio Chess Match was the first international sports event since the outbreak of World War II. since his Automaton could only conceal someone less then 4 feet tall.ChessCentral.C. Never before had a team representing the USSR played another country in any form of sport. MI in 1991. Raging Rooks Chess team at Adam Clayton Powell Junior High School in Harlem. He did not guess how anyone was hidden in The Turk. The first shortwave radio match in the US occurred between Ed Lasker in Chicago and Norman Whitaker in Washington. in 1920. www.Chess Trivia
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work in a book entitled Ueber den Schachspieler des Herrn von Kempelen und dessen Nachbildung. It marked the debut of the USSR in international sport. It was also the first international chess match played by radio.S.com
. Mayor LaGuardia made the opening move for the U. They tied for first place at the US Junior High School Chess Championship in Dearborn.

Rueben Fine led the lsit with a 2817 rating. The first USCF rating list appeared in the November 20. 1950 issue of CHESS LIFE. publisher of Penthouse. experts anyone over 2100.ChessCentral. Ratings The first organization to adopt a numerical rating system was the Correspondence Chess League of America in 1933. Vyacheslav (1908-1962) In 1944 Ragozin trained with Botvinnik for the USSR Championship. Bob Guccione.306 players from events from 1921 to 1950.Chess Trivia
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When they returned to New York. They trainded with a radio going full blast in the room to get accustom to a possibly noisy tournament hall. Ragozin. threw a party for them in his Upper East Side townhouse. The first British Grading List was published in 1954 and had 49 players listed. Ken Harkness rated 2. Ragozin ended up in 14th place out of 17 and blamed his results on the unusual quietness of the tournament hall! www. followed by Reshevsky at 2770. Masters were anyone over 2300.com
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Reinfeld. In 1125 John Zonares. a former captain of the Byzantine imperial guard. the Marshall Chess Club championship. In 1128 Saint Bernard of Clairvaux forbade the Order of the Knights Templars of playing chess. and outer space. He won the US Intercollegiate Chess Championship.ChessCentral. He declared chessplayers to be unworwww. coins. In 1195 the rabbi Maimonides included chess among the forbidden games. the New York State Championship (1931. The Church stamped out chess in Russia as a relic of heathenism. became a monk and issued a directive banning chess as a kind of debauchery. It was won by Viswanathan Anand. He wrote over 100 books on chess alone. Religion and chess Chess was condemned and forbidden by the Eastern Orthodox Church in 1093. and the Manhattan Chess Club championship.Chess Trivia
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Reggio Emilia In 1991-92 the first Category 18 tournament and the strongest ever held (average rating was 2676) occurred in Reggio Emilia. 1933). geology. Italy. Fred (1910-1964) Fred Reinfeld wrote 260 books on chess.com
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In 1322 the Jewish rabbi Kalonymos ben Kalonymos condemned chess in his Eben Bohan. under influence of the Church. In 1380 William of Wykeham. In 1240 chess was forbidden to the clergy and monastic orders by the Worcester Synod of England. In 1310 chess was forbidden to the clergy in Germany in the decree from the Council of Trier. Bishop of Paris. In 1329 chess was banned by the clergy in the Synod of Wurzburg in Germany.” In 1291 John Peckman.ChessCentral. In 1260 King Henry III instructed the clergy to leave chess alone “on pain of durance vile. inordiwww. decreed that chess be banned from the clergy.Chess Trivia
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thy of credence in the courts of law. founder of Oxford and Winchester College. In 1254 King Louis IX. thretened to put the prior and canons of Norfolk on a diet of bread and water unless they desisted from playing chess. issued an edict forbidding chess as a useless and boring game. In 1375 King Charles V (Charles the Wise) of France prohibited chess in France. It included forbidding chess play. Archbishop of Cantebury. In 1208 Odo Sully. In 1299 the Clemintine Kormch was written containing a series of directions and advice on conduct of priests at ordination.com
. included chess among the noxious.

In 1416 the Jews of Forli bound themselves not to play any game of chance for 10 years. In 1549 the Protohierarch Sylvester wrote his Domostroi (Houshold Government).ChessCentral. By 1500 chess became a recognized pastime for Jews on the Sabbath and other festivals. the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order. In 1392 Charles VI (Charles the Well-Beloved) decreed that chess be banned. The game was played by two blind monks. and unhonest games forbidden to scholars.Chess Trivia
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nate. he became insane. famed Bohemian religious reformer. abandoned the prohibition of chess on the grounds that chess was a proper amusement for a knight. he stated that those who play www. Exceptions were made for chess. ordered victims of persecutions to stand in as figures in a game of living chess. sought repentance for loss of self-control at the chess table. In 1390 John I of Aragon forbade chess. In 1467 Charles the Bold forbade dice or cards but allowed chess to be played on suitable occasions. In 1495 Pedro Arbues. Dominican member of the Inquisition.com
. In 1405 Johann Huss. Soon after. Each time the captured piece was taken. In 1420 Werner von Orseln. In his chapter on evil living. the person representing that piece was put to death.

he shall do public penance for two years.Chess Trivia
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chess shall all dwell in hell together. and shall be accursed on earth. In www. In 1570 a church manuscript dealt with the ecclesiastical punishment imposed on chessplayers. and make 200 obeiances each day. In Moscow the leading clerics compiled the Stoglav Collection which included the prohibition of chess.com
. If a clerk or layman play. The punishment was as follows: “If any of the clergy play chess. The Church authorities in Spain proclaimed her patron of chessplayers. a Spanish conventical reformer. because the game is derived from the lawless Chaldeans. all games were considered primary evils and the cause of all troubles. the priests of idols. After the plague of Cremona in 1575. She used chess to illustrate her meditations about ethics and faith. were prohibited for a year.ChessCentral. he shall be dismissed from his office. All games. It is a temptation of Satan. In the mid 15th century Saint Teresa. In 1551 Ivan IV of Russia banned chess and labelled it a pastime of Hellenic devilry. mentioned chess in her religious writings. except chess. In the late 16th century a Russian book on regulations was published forbidding chess. Clergymen associated the game with witchcraft and heresy.

ChessCentral. He learned chess at 4 and was giving exhibitions at 5. He won 19 games and drew one. He had them whipped and imprisoned. his first American simultaneous exhibition was with 20 officers and cadets at the Military Academy at West Point. Samuel (1911-1992)
Born Schmul Rzeszewski in Russian Poland.com
. He toured the www.Chess Trivia
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1649 the Czar Alexei found some players playing the forbidden game of chess. Reshevsky. As a 9-year old. The Puritans greatly disliked the game and discouraged chess play. Sammy Reshevsky came to the United States in 1920.

at the age of 72. which killed him. he tied for 3rd place in the U. His benefactor was Julius Rosenwald.S. His last U.com
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country and played over 1. His first U.S. In 1981. Iceland. Championship win was 1971. at the age of 70.500 games as a 9-year old in simultaneous exhibitions and only lost 8 games.S. founder of Sears & Roebuck. In 1984. from 1936 to 1981. Championships. He played in 21 U. He was hit by a street car and taken to a hospital to heal. In his early years he did not go to school and his parents ended up in Manhattan Children’s Court on charges of improper guardianship.S. When he died in 1992 of a heart attack he had played 11 of the 13 world champions. While in the hospital he contracted scarlet fever.
www. Richard (1889-1929) Reti played in both the Hungarian and Czechoslovakian national championship in the same year. Championship seven times. Championship.ChessCentral. Championship win was in 1936. He won the U. he took first place in a grandmaster tournament in Reykjavik.S.

that he simply put the note into his pocket unread. Rice. the colonel was so engrossed in a game of chess.ChessCentral. president of the first company to make rubber tires. Rhode Island College Only school in the United States to offer scholarships to strong chessplayers. and one of the earliest developers of the submarine. capturing 1. had it not been for chess. He was the founder of General Dynamics.000 subsidizing Rice Gambit events. He spent $50.Chess Trivia
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Revolutionary War On Christmas night. A loyalist near the American camp knew of the plan and sent his son with a note to warn Colonel Rahl earlier that day. Isaac (1850-1915) Inventor of the unsound Rice Gambit. the note was discovered. in the mortally wounded colonel’s pocket.com
. However.000 Hessian mercenaries under the command of Colonel Rahl. 1776. organized the first taxi service in New York. www. He was a millionaire. George Washington crossed the Delaware River at Trenton. After the battle. still unread. This surprise plan might have backfired.

Daniloff and Zakharov. and Karpov and Kasparov.Chess Trivia
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Richardson. Peter Mark (1779-1869) Author of Roget’s Thesaurus and devised the first pocket chess set in 1845. The top choices were ‘Fergie and Andy. Sir Robert Won the 1947 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.ChessCentral. Served as the President of the Royal Society and President of the British Chess Federation in 1950. Gorby and Raisa.com
. becoming the first British player to be awarded the title of Grandmaster for chessplaying. Keith (1942. ROLLING STONE Magazine In 1986 Rolling Stone magazine included a section titled Glamour Couples of the Year. John and Tatum. www. Roget. Robinson. Romania In 1949 the championship of Romania had 105.) Awarded the title of International Grandmaster of Correspondence Chess in 1975.000 initial entrants. It was finally won by Balanel.

earned a brown belt in judo. winning the Paris championship ten times. He died in Greenwich village after falling down a flight of stairs. He made a record of Russian folk songs. In this event. Lewis First known American chess author (1734).Chess Trivia
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Rosenfeld.ChessCentral.S.S. He played on three U.com
. Rossolimo. Nicolas (1910-1975) Born in Kiev of Greek parents who moved to France. www. Olympic teams and was on the French Olympic team in 1972. Round Robin The first round robin chess tournament in which a player played every other player was the London International in 1862. Christine First US correspondence international woman master (1990). then to the U. and was a taxi driver in Paris and New York City. Rou. Open in 1955 (a new Buick).S. where he won the U. drawn games had to be replayed until there was a winner.

ChessCentral. Akiba (1882-1961)
Chess master who claimed he studied chess six hours a day. Another 60 days he spent playing in chess tournaments.Chess Trivia
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Royal Game The first reference to chess as the “Royal Game” appeared in the Reson and Sensuallyte by John Lydgate in 1425. Rubinstein. The remaining five days he rested. He never ate in public and would not shake hands for fear of germs.com
. 300 days a year. He was so paranoid that if a stranger came to www.

he invested all his money in German War bonds. took him to a leading psycho-neurologist at Munich.Chess Trivia
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his door. Alekhine. and Emanuel Lasker the first time he played them in tournament play. you are mad.com
.ChessCentral. In 1911 at San Sebastian he complained of a fly which kept settling on his forhead and breaking his concentration. After he won the tournament.
www. San Sebastian. believing he was the source of these strange noises. In 1912 he won five consecutive strong tournaments in one year (Vilna. He was the youngest of 12 children. and Warsaw). “My friend. Breslau. He beat Capablanca. During World War I. He spent fours years hiding in a sanatorium in Belgium during the Nazi occupation. a record which has never been surpassed. Like Lasker. the tournament director. He once burst in the room next door and tried to strangle Richard Reti. The doctor examined Rubinstein and said. Pistyan. he would jump out the window. But what does it matter? You are a chess master!” Rubinstein imagined noises in the night: knockings on the walls. Jacques Mieses.

Thereafter.com
. Mary (1845-?) Winner of the first international women’s tourney (1897).Chess Trivia
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Rudge. He owned one of the largest chess libraries in the world until destroyed by bombs in 1945. www. Black was considered to be the lucky chess color. Rules In 1290 Lombard lawyers formulated a rule to govern chess play when players from differnet countries met. Alexander (1882-1959) Dutch lawyer who became first President of FIDE (1924-1949). The first international codification of rules occurred in 1929. In 1853 George Walker suggested that the players who draw White should have the first move in order to compensate. the players had the same color pieces throughout the session. One could have the Black pieces and move first.ChessCentral. The rule stated: “The game of chess ought to observe the custom of the place in which it is played. Rueb.” Prior to 1853 the rules were to draw for color as well as the first move at the start of the game.

published posthumously. His chess book. Russ. was entitled American Chess Nuts. When she rejected him.
www.ChessCentral. The first All-Russian Chess Federation was formed in 1914 with 65 members. Russia Chess was first introduced in Russia in 820 A. he shot her four times in the head. William (1833-1866) Leading American compiler of chess problems in the 19th century.D.Chess Trivia
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Ruodlieb A Latin poem written by the monk Froumund vonn Tegernsee in 1030 is the first written reference of chess in German literature.com
. then shot himself twice. She survived. He adopted an 11-year old girl and proposed to her when she turned 21. he did not.

Saltsjobaden. In one tournament he lost all 13 games on time. Friedrich (1896-1975) Loser of more games of chess on time than any other master. Rob Won the 1975 and 1983 Golden Knights correspondence chess championship with two perfect scores. was not represented. Salgado. The U.com
. declined. Isaac Kashdan and Arnold Denker. The time control was 45 minutes in 2 1/2 hours. In another event he lost a game on time in 13 moves. got in time trouble and lost. Sweden 1948 First Interzonal tournament and won by David Bronstein who survived an assassination attempt on his life. but he felt that would not cover his expenses. Denker would have had to finance www.S.ChessCentral.Chess Trivia
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Saemisch. The USCF raised $1. The two candidates.000 for Kashdan to play. He once spent 45 minutes before making his first move.

Elaine Won the British girls’ under 21 title at age 10. Scandals and chess In 1987 the Zone 11 (East Asia/Australia) Zonal in Jjarkata. The player was watching other games and made no attempt to make time control against the front-runner. President Campomanes reversed the decision.ChessCentral. Won the British women’s championship in 1939 at the age of 13.Chess Trivia
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the entire journey himself. Indonesia was cancelled after charges that the Chinese players were throwing games to insure one of their own advanced to the Interzonals.
www. and ruled that the results would stand. Later. Saunders. FIDE then nullified the tournament. Seven players represented the USSR in the twenty man field and five of them finished in the top six places. Xu Jun. A majority of players refused to play after a Chinese player resigned a drawn game and lost on time to other Chinese players.com
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Scholar’s Mate 1. Supported himself by giving chess lessons at the Cafe de la Regence in Paris.Bc4 d6 4.com
. Carl (1874-1918) The most quiet of all grandmasters. earning 4 francs a day.) German grandmaster with the largest private chess library in the world. Schlumberger. Taught Pierre Saint Amant. In France it is called the Shepherd’s mate. never mentioning to any of his acquaintances that he needed money or food. with over 20.Chess Trivia
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Schlechter.000 chess books. He has served as chief arbiter for Fischer-Spassky 1972. Known as the “Drawing Master” as he drew half of his 700 tournament and match games. He starved to death during the war-imposed famine in Central Europe.Qh5 Nc6 3.ChessCentral. William (1800-1838) Strongest player in America from 1826 to 1837. The last operator of the Turk.Qxf7 mate. Lothar (1928. Schmid.e4 e5 2. Karwww.

and Fischer-Spassky 1992.) First American to beat a reigning world champion. Scrivener. Seirawan. The first seconds were for the Lasker-Tarrasch match in 1908. Kasparov-Karpov 1986. However. Yassar (1960. He defeated Karpov in 1982. it was the English who played the Scotch opening! Second A player’s attendent. They were allowed to help in preparation of the openings. the oldest state champion. Robert (1881-? ) In 1961 Robert Scrivener won the Mississippi State Championship at the age of 80.com
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pov-Korchnoi 1978. He was once featured in “Cosmopolitan” magazine as Bachelor of the Month in Sepwww.ChessCentral. Scotch Game An opening name derived from a correspondence game between the English in London and the Scots in Edinburgh. The first seconds that assisted during adjournments were in the Alekhine-Euwe championship match in 1935.

In 1985 he became the first US Candidate for the World Championship cycle since Robert Byrne in 1973.ChessCentral. It was designed to put you in orbit. He invented the Soyuz-Apollo cocktail (25% vodka. Selenius. Semaphore In 1868. Gustavus (1579-1666) Author of the earliest detailed account of living chess and the earliest German book on the openings in 1616. 25% gin. www. Vitaly President of the USSR Chess Federation and the first person to play chess in space during the Soyuz IX mission in 1970. 50% brandy). Georg Carr played chess with a friend five miles away using a telescope and semaphores. Shahiludo. de A Latin poem written by a Winchester monk in 1180.Chess Trivia
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tember 1983. Sevastianov. a career diplomat.com
. In 1986 he was replaced by Alexander Chikvaidze. It is the first British reference to chess.

) America’s youngest Grandmaster and highest rated Junior in the US. Shannon.) International Master who was the American Chess Foundation (ACF) for over 10 years.com
. Sherwin. It was first used by a Serbian nomocanon translated from a Greek source in 1262. He won the World Junior Championship in 1997. a retired Mobil Corporation executive. He was involved in some Wall Street scandals and was replaced as President of the ACF by Fan Adams. Shakmatny The Russian word for chess.ChessCentral. Claude The first person to describe how a computer might be programmed to play chess.Chess Trivia
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Shaked. Tal (1978. James (1933. Ships and chess In 1902 the first chess match between players on different ships at sea was played by passengers on the American liner Philadelphia and the Cunard liner Campania 70 www. in 1948.

age 11. Jackson (1860-1935) The first official U. He is considered the inventor of the curve ball.S. championship play was a 5 mover by Shirazi-Peters in 1984. Showalter. www. His nickname was the Kentucky Lion. The moves were broadcast by wireless operators aboard the ships. He won the British speed championship at age 13 and tied for first in the British Championship at 14.Chess Trivia
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miles away. In 1962 the first USCF rated event ever held shipboard was won by John Mauer (USS Intrepid Open).) The youngest player ever to qualify to play in the British Championship. Nigel (1965. Short games The shortest game in U. He bacame an International Master at 14 after placing 2nd in the World Junior Championship and a Grandmaster at 19.com
.ChessCentral. The match was not concluded since the radio was required for navigational use. Short.S. Chess Champion (1890).

Chaude de (1919. and lost only 10 games in 1977. drew 18 and lost 3 games. and losing four games. Yugoslavia) in 1950. drew 6 in San Francisco in 1960. drawing one game. The first satellite simultaneous exhibition was between Kasparov against players in London and New York. and lost 15.
www. George Koltanowski played 56 consecutive (not simultaneous) blindfold games and won 50. winning one game. Vlastimil Hort played 550 opponents. The best record for simultaneous play was achieved by Capablanca who played 103 opponents.) First lady to play in the Men’s Olympiad (Dubrovnik. drew 1 game and won all the rest in Cleveland in 1922.Chess Trivia
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Silans.ChessCentral. taking 12 hours. drew 27.com
. She played first board reserve for France. Simultaneous play Karl Podzielny played 575 games simultaneously in 1978. He won 31. 201 simultaneously. Janos Flesch played 52 strong players blindfold. In 30 1/2 hours he won 533 .

Josef Krejcik. playing chessplayers in London and New York. and USSR. drawing 1. one was to the exhibiter’s mother. winning 8. gave a simultaneous display at Linz on 25 boards and lost every single game. and losing 1. Of the two losses.
www. Senegal. Japan. In 1988 Kasparov played 10 oppenents in Australia. England. Belgium. In 1984 Kasparov conducted the first satellite simultaneous exhibition.ChessCentral. In 1910 the Austrian master.Chess Trivia
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The best simultaneous record is Jude Acers winning all 114 games at a simultaneous exhibition at the 1966 Louisiana State Fair. Italy. The worst performance in a simultaneous exhibition is a New Jersey player who invited 180 opponents to play him in 1977. Only 20 showed up and 18 won. USA.com
. 380 of Cuba’s strongest players played 18 opponents each. In 1966 at the Havana Olympiad. a total of 6840 individual boards. Canada. Switzerland.

In 1983 while playing in the National Open in Las Vegas.000 at a poker tournament. Ken (1930.ChessCentral. He has won the Texas Championship 9 times and the Southwest Championship 7 times. both players agreed to use a roulette wheel to select the winner. the match was tied 7-7.
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Smith. Huebner’s color was black and Smyslov’s color was red. the oldest candidate ever. Ken Smith won $140. The second spin saw the ball land in “Red 3" and Smyslov won. Vassily (1921.) Became a candidate for the world championship by taking 2nd place at the 1982 Las Palmas interzonal at the age of 61. Smyslov’s father once beat Alekhine in a chess tournament in 1912. In his candidates match with Huebner in Velden. To break the tie. He was not given a prize because he was not British.) In 1954 he won the British Blitz Championship while stationed in England. The wheel was spun at it came up 0. Smyslov. Austria.com
. He won the first World Seniors Championship in 1991 at the age of 70.

Karl Robatsch. Players participating in South African events have also been banned from FIDE events. Kestler. 1970 by the Soyez-9 crew. Ohio in 1977). Southern Chess Association In 1950 an Afro-American player was invited to the Southern Chess Association’s Congress in Durham.ChessCentral.com
. Open (Columbus. There was a movement to outlaw the Southern Chess Association from U.S.S. chess because of this incident. Players banned have included Miguel Quinteros.Chess Trivia
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Sneaky Pete First computer to play in a U. Space The first game between space and earth was played on June 9. NC but then barred because of his color. and H. Vatily Sevastynov (who later became President of the USSR Chess Federation) and Nikolayev played their ground crew on a spewww. South Africa Banned from FIDE from 1977 to 1992 because of its aprtheid practices. Ledek Pachman.

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cially designed chess set for the weightless environment. His ending against Bronstein in the 1960 USSR Championship was used in the opening sequence of the James Bond film “From Russia With Love”. which caught on fire.com
. Spielmann. The game ended in a draw. He was so absorbed with the game that he failed to notice he was on fire and had to be rescued by onlookers.) First Soviet to compete in a Swiss System tournament.ChessCentral. In a tournament a spectator carelessly flicked an ash on Spielmann’s pants. Boris (1937. Sphynz A chess problem that appears on the frontpiece of Staunton’s The Chess Players Handbook. www. Rudolf (1883-1942) His nickname was “The Last Knight of the King’s Gambit” because he played this opening so much. the Canadian Open in 1971. Spassky. His sister Irena has been the USSR women’s champion at checkers several times.

ChessCentral. 1962 issue that Fischer wrote his famous article. the player who gave stalemate lost the game. Saul’s Famous Game of Chesse-Play. 14 draws. Gideon (1908-1967) In 1941 Swedish Grandmaster Gideon Stahlberg played 400 games on 20 boards (each loser being replaced by a new player) at Buenos Aires. In Spain and Portugal it counted as an inferior win. After 36 hours his score was 364 wins.Chess Trivia
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Sports Illustrated It was the August 20. Finally. He was the arbiter of five world championships. and 22 losses. in 1807.com
. Stalemate The rule regarding stalemate first appeared in Europe in A. the London Chess Club www. Some countries didn’t even allow it. He played on 13 Swedish olympic teams. In England. He died during a tournament in Leningrad. The Russians Have Fixed World Chess. Stahlberg. He accused the Soviets of cheating and in collusion with each other at the Curacao Candidates tournament. In Italy and France stalemate counted as a draw.

Started America’s first chess column which contained the first chess problem published in America. Statham. inventor.com
. Kirk won every game. The first stamp with a chess theme was issued in 1947 in Bulgaria commemorating the Balkan Games. Star Trek Kirk and Spock have played chess three times on STAR TREK. Louis (1907-1983) Physicist.ChessCentral. Stanley. Stamps. He owned the Playboy mansion in Los Angeles www. The US has yet to do so. The first chess stamp which protrayed a chess master was issued by Cuba in 1951 when a portrait of Capablanca appeared on their 25 cent stamp. philanthropist and American chess patron.Chess Trivia
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laws gave stalemate as a draw and it has remained so ever since. Charles (1819-1901) Considered to be America’s first chess champion until he lost a match with Paul Morphy. Chess Over 50 countries have issued a stamp on chess.

At 60 he took up correspondence chess. held in London in www. Someone had to drive to Manila to find a Staunton chess set. His interests also included yacht racing. The name of the standard pattern of chessmen in England before the Staunton pattern was the St. George design. playing over 40 games at once.com
. The Staunton knight pattern was modelled after the Greek horse of the Eglin Marbles in the British Museum.Chess Trivia
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before selling it to Hugh Hefner and moving to Lone Pine. none of the chess sets shown to Karpov and Korchnoi just before the match were of the Staunton pattern. He had a doctorate in mathematics and pioneered the use of shock waves in oil exploration. His Lone Pine tournaments (1971-1981) became one of the premier events in the US.ChessCentral. He also contributed to the developement of the artificial heart. and ham radio. In the 1978 World Championship match in Baguio. which arrived just 15 minutes before the clocks were due to be started. opera singing. Staunton chess set The only type of chess set allowed in FIDE events. Howard (1810-1874) Organizer of the world’s first international tournament. Staunton.

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1851. Steinitz. the first chess magazine in the English language in 1840. Leonid (1934-1973) Three times Soviet champion. Wilhelm (1836-1900)
Steinitz took 6th place in the London 1851 tournament. He founded the Chess Player’s Chronicle.ChessCentral. Stein. He was heading for the European Team Championship in Bath in 1973 when he was found dead of a heart attack in the Rossiya Hotel in Moscow. After the tournament.com
. he challenged the 5th place finisher www.

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to a match.5 score.5 . He was once held against his will in an insane asylum in Moscow in 1897.com
. London 1899. but finally won with a 12. He won prize money in every tournament he ever played in except his last tournament. His daughter sold programs and photographs to spectators during the New York phase of the world championship match to earn a few extra dollars for the family. He had the delusion that he was phoning somebody in New York. He was sent to the asylum protesting violently. He imagined he could draw energy from the earth and emit electrical currents. After he lost his title. He challenged God to a match and occasionally beat Him at chess with pawn odds. he enjoyed www. He believed he could move chess pieces through mental telepathy. He held the world chess championship for 27 years.ChessCentral. However. Steinitz started badly. Steinitz won. It would be another 31 years and 25 matches before anyone could defeat him. being 1-4 down. The first recognized world champion who won the first official world championship match against Zuckertort in 1886.7. They couldn’t afford a winter coat for her as she stood shivering in the vestibule in the cold January weather. he showed signs of mental illness.

U.
www. in 1900. In 1990 Bogdan Szetela noticed a car drive by that looked like his that had been stolen 11 days earlier. Stevenson Vera Menchik. He died in the East River mental asylum on New York’s Ward Island. Spotting a police officer. He stayed a week. Stolen car A chess set was instrumental in a man retreiving his stolen car.ChessCentral. When he died he left a wife and two small children destitute. woman’s champion.Chess Trivia
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the food and played chess with other inmates. But this car had a taxi light on top and “Crescent Cab Co.S. He once spit on Blackburne and Blackburne hit him. Stevenson.com
. world woman’s champion. Stevenson.” painted on the side. married and became Mrs. Police weren’t convinced unti he told them that he left a chess set in the trunk before it was stolen. penniless. he told the cop that the cab was his stolen car. married and became Mrs. Sonja Graf. The police popped the trunk and found the chess set.

) First International Master to lose to a computer.Chess Trivia
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Strauss. Streisand. Barbra Fellow student of Bobby Fischer at Erasmus High School in Brooklyn who used to swap MAD comics. The competitors stopped playing halfway through the event and refused to play unless they were given more rations and prize money. Legend has it that in 1011 A. Strazdins. Germany. Strike The first chess strike occured at the 1st All-Russian Chess Olympiad held in Moscow. David (1946.. CT chess club championship for 23 years in a row. 1920. Open. In 1986 an experimental Fidelity machine defeated Strauss at the 1986 U.ChessCentral.D. Arkadijs Won the New Britain. Stroebeck Village in the Harz Mountains.com
. Their demands were finally met. Henry II of Germany decreed that the Wendish Count of Gungelin be www. from 1952 to 1975. near Halberstadt.S.

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delivered to the Biship of Stroebeck. In 1579 he wrote The fragrence of the Rose: on the Superiority of Chess over Nard (backgammon).ChessCentral.000 has a chess festival with parades. During World War I the city printed a bill showing Bismark as the world chess master. He died while in office after returning from his honeymoon. banners.com
. Sultan Khan. Sukaikir Last writer on the Muslim game of chess. and a living chess game. Every year the town of 2. elected in 1939. Mir (1905-1966) Winner of the All-indian championship and in five years he was the winner of the Championship of the British www. to be kept in solitay confinement. He won his freedom by teaching his guards how to play chess and the game was passed on to their friends and relatives. George (1891-1944) First President of the USCF. Sturgis. The captive spent his long hours playing chess by himself. using a chalked-out board on the dungeon floor and chessmen carved from wood.

Nimzovich. www.) Canadian Grandmaster who became Canada’s 1st correspondence GM in 1982. Sultan Khan was invited to play at Moscow 1936.Chess Trivia
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Empire three times and played on top board for England in three Olympiads. Rubinstein and other top players. Sultan Khan was required to wait on everyone as a servant the entire evening. He defeated Capablanca.com
. He was a servant in the household of Colonel Umar Hayat Khan Tiwano. which were differnet than Eastern chess (pawns could only move one square at a time. chess team from the Olympiad was invited to the home of Sultan Khan’s master in London. He couldn’t speak English and had to have an attendant write down his score. He was illiterate and had to learn the rules of chess in Europe. In 1933 the U. Duncan (1945.S. He died of tuberculosis in Pakistan. living the rest of his life as a farmer. an army officer in charge of the horses for King George V.ChessCentral. Suttles. for example). He returned to India with his master. but was too poor to attend.

The first national event to use the Swiss system was the 1945 U. SWIFT The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications. Karpov met Kasparov for the 100th time. Open in Corwww. The 2nd SWIFT International in 1987 was the first time Kasparov.Chess Trivia
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Sutton. Swindle of the Century Name given to the Larry Evans-Sammy Reshevsky game at the 1964 US Championship.S. In his possession was How to Think Ahead in Chess by Horowitz. Muller and first used in a chess tournament at Zurich in 1895. and Korchnoi competed together.ChessCentral.com
.S. The first use of the Swiss system in the United States was the Texas Championship in 1942. George Koltanowski introduced the Swiss System in the United States. Intercollegiate Championship followed by the 1947 U. Willie Famous bank robber who was arrested by the FBI in 1952. Swiss System Pairing system invented by J. Karpov.

com
. Open has been conducted under the Swiss System.
www.ChessCentral. Since 1947 every U. The first Swiss System Olympiad was Buenos Aires in 1978.S.Chess Trivia
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pus Christi.

Both were returned to him when Fischer also beat Larsen 6-0. he returned to the USSR in disgrace.) Bought a point from Matulovic for $400 at the Palma de Mallorca Interzonal in 1970. He was stripped of his title ‘Honored Master of Sport’ and deprived of his monthly earnings for holding the grandmaster title. Mark (1926.ChessCentral. Normally grandmasters are not searched when crossing the border to the Soviet Union. “Black has not yet made 40 moves. but Taimanov was asked to open his luggage for examination. Tal was playing White against Adamski with both players in time trouble. When he lost to Fischer 6-0 in Vancouver.Chess Trivia
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T
Taimanov. Mikhail Nekhemyevich (1936-1992) At a tournament in Poland in 1974. At that moment.com
. They found one of Solzhenitsin’s banned books which Taimanov brought from Canada. Tal. British Columbia. Adamski’s flag fell but Tal lost a piece and resigned. Tal’s wife said.” A referee intervened and awarded the win to Tal www.

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since the flag falling happened before Tal resigned. He won the World Blitz Championship in 1988.ChessCentral.) American Grandmaster who got his title in 1976. winning 47 and drawing 39. Tal won the tournament.
www. Tarjan. He considered hunting and chess as the two pastimes worthy of a warrior.com
. In 1966 Tal was hit in the head with a bottle in a bar during the 1966 Olympiad in Havana and beaten up. It was the first GM title for the U. Adamski appealed but his protest was rejected. in 12 years.S. He named his son Shahrukh (chess rook). He missed the first five rounds of the Olympics because of his injuries. Tamerlane (1336-1405) The Mongol ruler and conqueror of the 14th century. Tal’s parents were cousins. James (1952. In 1972-73 Tal played 86 games without a loss in international competition. He died of kidney failure in Moscow.

Tarrasch lost two sons in the early days of World War I. he blamed his loss on the influence of sea-air.Chess Trivia
Tarrasch. Tarrasch was a medical doctor specializing in hypnosis.ChessCentral.com
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www. In 1918 he won a chess match in which the prize was a kilogram of butter. The match began at Dusseldorf. 100 miles from the coast. After losing to Lasker. Siegbert (1862-1934)
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He had the lamest excuse in history for losing a world championship match.

During World War II he was a Lieutenant in the Free French Army.com
. I wasn’t feeling well. must one have to win every game?” He received a Doctor of Law degree in 1909.
www. In the fourth game. In the third game it was an attack of rheumatism.C (1877-1957) English chess composer and compiler of the first major anthology of endgames: A Thousand End-Games in 1910.Chess Trivia
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Tartakower. He replied. And in the fifth game? Well.ChessCentral. In the second game I had a headache. “I had a toothache during the first game. Saviely (1887-1956) Grandmaster from France who played for Poland in six consecutive Olympiads although he never lived there nor could speak the language. He once lost five games in a row and was asked why. Tattersall. During World War I he was a Lieutenant in the Austrian army and was shot in the stomach.

In 1889 he unsuccessfully challenged Steinitz for the world championship in Havana. only had 250 subscribers in all of Russia.Chess Trivia
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. and journalist in Russia. His first chess magazine. He was the first public chess worker. Chess Sheet. organizer. A month later www. Steinitz had won 10 and lost 6.ChessCentral. From 1878 to 1907 he was considered the best Russian chessplayer. Mikhail (1850-1908)
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Founder of the Russian school of chess. which ended after 17 games and only one draw.

At Hastings 1895 he won a ring and a copy of Salvoli’s The Theory and Practice of Chess for winning the most Evans Gambits. New York 1889. 1900-01. and the first time players from all five continents were able to take part in a world gathering. 1903). Telegraph The first telegraph match was played between Washington. Tel Aviv 1964 Site of the 16th Olympiad. www. He took second place in the Hastings 1895 tournament (behind Pillsbury) and won the first three All-Russia tournaments (1899. D. Teeth A player at a Hastings tournament was clenching his teeth with concentration that he broke his false teeth.ChessCentral. and Baltimore in 1844.Chess Trivia
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Tchigorin won America’s first international tournament. linked by the first American telegraph.com
. which was the first ever held in Asia. He had to forfeit his game to go to a dentist.C.

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. and quarter-finalist tennis player at Wimbledon. He was on the winning doubles team championship at www. In Spain she is considered the patron saint of chess players.Chess Trivia
Telephone The first telephone match was played in 1878. 1965 when Bobby Fischer played in the Capablanca Memorial tournament. Thomas. Cuba. The Way of Perfection. Lord President of the British Chess Association. His mother was the winner of the first British women’s chess championship at Hastings in 1895. British badminton champion (1920-23). Tennyson. George (1881-1972) British chess champion in 1923. Saint (1515-1582) Spanish nun who wrote a devotional work.ChessCentral.
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Teletype The first time a tournament game was played by teletype was on Aug 25. Theresa of Avila. using chess in allegory. He played his games by teletype from New York to his opponents in Havana.

March 25th. He was an internationally ranked squash and table-tennis player. ahead of Capablanca. An hour-glass gave each player 2 hours to make 24 moves.ChessCentral. all three of whom he defeated. He www. He died on the night of March 23rd/24th. Tie-breaking The first tie breaking system used was Sonnenborn-Berger system at Vienna in 1873. Carlos (1905-1978) Mexico’s first grandmaster. Theophilus (1855-1910?) First African-American chessplayer. Tombstone The death date on Alekhine’s tombstone. and Lilienthal.com
. He finished tied for first at Hastings. Thompson. He was once found running down Fifth Avenue in New York completely nude. Botvinnik. is wrong. Torre.Chess Trivia
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Wimbledon in 1919. the
Time limit The Anderssen-Kolisch match in 1861 was the first time a time-limit was used.

He was once voted one of the ten sexiest sportsment in the Philippines and was featured in a movie. He won the New York state championship in 1924.2682 www. Strongest (FIDE ratings) Linares 1994 . Polerio and Leonardo defeated Ruy Lopez and Ceron in a series of matches arranged by King Phillip II.ChessCentral. Tournament The world’s first chess tournament was held at the Royal Court in Madrid in 1575.Chess Trivia
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was addicted to pineapple sundaes and comsumed 15 a day.com
.2685 Hague-Moscow 1948 . Tournaments. was the American Chess Congress. Poland in 1937. Torre. The most grueling international tournament ever held was at Jurata. First prize was a silver service valued at $300. The 22 masters had to play 21 games in 14 days with no adjournments.S.) Philippine grandmaster and Asia’s first grandmaster. Eugenio (1951. held in New York in 1857 and won by Paul Morphy. The first national tournament held in the U.

The assailant had been released from an asylum www. Theodore Smith. Mouret. 1991 he played over 3.Chess Trivia
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Trotsky. Turner.com
.000 francs. Trotsky was an avid chessplayer. simply in order to learn the secret of its operation. Abe had been working there for two weeks. Eugene de Beauharnais. Turk Nickname of the first automation. A former operator. for the sum of 30. Tuggle. sold the secret of its operation to a French magazine 65 years later. It was later bought by Napoleon’s stepson. In 1988 he played a record 771 rated games. Made by Kempelen in 1789. at Chess Review. From 1985 to February.ChessCentral. Abe (1924-1962) Chess master who was killed after being stabbed nine times in the back by a fellow employee. Jesse (1928-1991) Most active USCF player from 1985 to 1990.400 tournament rated games. Leon His real name was Bronstein and his father was named David Bronstein.

Twin Chess problem equivalent of two separate. most often shown on one diagram.ChessCentral.
www.com
. Evan (1972. Turtel. Turtel’s rating at the time was 1605.) At age 9 he became the youngest player to beat a master when he defeated Alan Williams (2322) at a chess tournament in New York City.Chess Trivia
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and claimed that Abe Turner was a Communist spy and had to be killed on orders from the Secret Service. though related. problems.

2. The first university to have a chess club is Oxford (1845).ChessCentral.com
. Uhlmann. that no human opponent could beat it. Univac computer In 1948 the Univac (universal automatic computer) was advertised as the strongest computer in the world.000 students signed up for the course.) German Grandmaster who has always played the French Defense as Black. that it could play chess and gin rummy so perfectly. So strong. Switzerland instead of Lucerne. University The first university to offer a course on chess was Moscow University in 1965. Switzerland for the 1982 chess olympiad. www.Chess Trivia
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U
Uganda The Ugandan chess team showed up at Lugano. Wolfgang (1935.

U. www.S.S. championship did not occur until 1936. Open in Long Beach was a new Buick. George Sturgis was the first USCF President. Chess Federation (USCF) Formed in 1939 after the American Chess Federation merged with the National Chess Federation.S.ChessCentral. is the first reference to chess in Europe. U. U.Chess Trivia
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Uregel.S. bequething his chessmen to a church. appeared in September 1946. It was won by Nicholas Rossolimo. It was won by Sammy Reshevsky.S. the official USCF magazine.S. Dues were $1 a year. Junior Chess Championship in 1966. U. In 1955 the first place prize at the U.S.com
. Junior Championship Walter Browne won the first invitational U. Open The first U. Championship The first official U. Open chess championship was held in Minnesota in 1900. The first publication of CHESS LIFE. Count His will. written in 1008.S.

In 1934 there were 500.000 players.Chess Trivia
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USSR In 1922 there were 1. In the 1990s there are over 5 million chess players in the USSR.000 players.540. In 1966 there were 3.
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.000 registered chessplayers in the Soviet Union.ChessCentral.000 players. In 1929 there were 150. In 1924 the Russian state took over control of chess with the formation of the All-Union Chess Section of the Supreme Council for Physical Culture.

Velimirovic.) Record-holder for the most simultaneous correspondence chess games. His mother was Yugoslavia’s first woman champion. Vaughan. Dragoljub (1942. www. Don Antonio de (?-1550) Bishop of Nicaragua who was assassinated while playing chess in his church.com
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Vajda. He died as a result of a gas leak in a faulty oven.124 postal games. Arpad (1896-1967) Champion of Hungary and International Master. Stan (1956. It is the first written evidence of a form of chess.) Nicknamed the Yugoslavian Tal.ChessCentral. Valdiviesco. Vasavadatta A Sanskrit romance written by Subandhu in 590. In 1988 he was playing 1.

He ended up in last place and only scored 3 points out of 21.com
. Vergani. Beniamino Champion of Italy who played in Hastings. The A 13th century Latin poem in which the invention of chess is attributed to Ulysses at the siege of Troy. Vetula. He was so thoroughly disgusted with his game that he never played in a masters’ tournament again. Vicent. Gavril (1912-1979) Champion of Belorussia who was Captain of the Guards and wounded several times during World War II.
www. 1895.ChessCentral. He arrived from the front lines to play in the 1944 USSR National Championship in Moscow.Chess Trivia
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Veresov. published in Spain in 1495. Francesch Author of the oldest book on chess openings.

S.ChessCentral. Toma Garai. Welles was the narrator of the two-hour cassette. and Larry Christiansen.) International Master nominated for the Nobel prize in Chemistry. He was an electrical engineer. Vukcevich. in 1983. He was the first Grandmaster of Chess Composition from the United States. Milan (1885-1962) Yugoslavia’s first Grandmaster (1950).Chess Trivia
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Video Cassette The first video chess cassette starred Orson Welles. Championship 1975. Vidmar. He took third place in the U. He is a professor of metallurgy. There is only one other GM of Chess Composition from the US. Yasser Seirawan.
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. Milan (1937.

Walker. Both events were held the same weekend. Paul Winner of the 1983 Nebraska invitational championship and the state amateur championship. Robert (1921. He has won the New Zealand championship three times and the British championship twice (1952 and 1970). in 1823.Chess Trivia
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W
Wade. in 1837. He was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his services to chess in 1979. Established the custom of recording games.) International master who played a simultaneous exhibition against 30 Moscow schoolchidren in 1951 and didn’t win a single game. Waldowski. Editor of England’s first chess magazine. George (1803-1879) Writer of the first chess column to appear in a magazine. The Philidorian.ChessCentral.com
. www. He lost 20 games and drew 10 after 7 hours of play. the Lancet.

In 1968 he won the U. Portugal. In 1972.com
.S.Nf3 d5 2. Larry Evans took 1st place.S. Norman Weinstein’s rating was 2416. number 20 in the U. Weinstein. In 1975 he took 2nd place at an international tournament in Portimaio. Norman (1950. In 1973 he won the U. In 1974 Norman took 9th place at the U. This was the first time Americans took 1st and 2nd place at an international tournament.Chess Trivia
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Walking ECO The nickname of Semyon Furman.S. Championship in Chicago.c4).ChessCentral.S. Junior Open in New York. In 1975 he took 3rd place at Lone Pine and did well enough in the 1975 Cleveland International to gain the International Master norm (playing at Grandmaster pace). In 1978 Norman www. 1950 in New York. Open in Chicago. Norman attended Brandeis University and got a Masters degree in mathematics. In 1976 he won the Quebec Open. He defeated Reshevsky in this event. In 1978 he wrote a book on the Reti Opening (1.) Norman Stephen Weinstein was born on October 4. grandmaster and successful trainers to many young Soviet masters. In 1972 Norman won the Atlantic Open.

His high school team won the Interscholastic Team Championship. taught by Jack Collins. he won the Junior championship of the Marshall chess club in New York City. Raymond attended the same high school (Erasmus High School) as Bobby Fischer (and Barbra Streisand) and was two grades ahead of him. California.Chess Trivia
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tied for 5th-7th in the U.) Raymond Allen Weinstein was born on April 25.ChessCentral. In 1956. Raymond (1941. Raymond was part of the Collins Kids. He has been mentioned in Forbes magazine. He scored 1 win (against Kim Commons) and 13 draws. He was recruited by Bankers Trust. Championship in Pasadena. Bobby Fischer dropped out of high school and Raymond became captain and first board of Erasmus High School for 3 years. the only player not to lose a game. Weinstein. He would win the Marshall chess club www. who was looking for chess masters.com
. 1941 in Brooklyn. Championship. with no losses. and Norman became a very successful and wealthy currency trader.S. Norman Weinstein has the highest percentage of draws (77.1 percent) of any player participating in a U.S. at the age of 15.

In 1957 Raymond won the Long Island Amateur Championship. Junior Championship.S. First place went to Arthur Bisguier (his second cousin). Open in Cleveland and got an expert’s rating as his first rating. This event was won the two previous years by Bobby Fischer. In 1958 he won the U.S. after an 8-1 score (7 wins. He played in his first rated tournament.S. 1961. However. Open in Omaha. Raymond attended Brooklyn College for 4 years (he received a Bachelors of Arts degree in psychology) and was captain and 1st board of his college chess team the won the Intercollegiate Chess Championship. Raymond was invited to the U. Championship.S. Raymond and Pal Benko tied for 2nd-3rd place.com
. Florida (Norman Weinstein would win this event 10 years later) and became a USCF master. and 1962. He won the 1959 New Jersey Open and the 1960 Western Open. Nebraska (Norman Weinstein would win the US Open in 1973 in Chicago). 2 draws).S. Championship in 1958-59 because of his win in the U. the 1957 U.S. Raymond played in the 1959-60 U.Chess Trivia
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championship in 1960. In 1959 he tied for 2nd-3rd at the U. Junior Open in Homestead.ChessCentral. drawing 6 and losing 5. He was unable to win a single game. www. he took last place.

S. In 1961 Raymond was giving simultaneous exhibitions at Princeton and Harvard. In the 1960-61 U. Championship. Sam Reshevsky. team that won the students World Team Championship in Leningrad. First place went to Bobby Fischer and 2nd place went to Bill Lombardy. Bobby Fischer was rated at 2640. the 6th highest in the country. He also defeated his cousin Arthur Bisguier.S. He played Board 3 and had the best percentage points for board 3. at age 19. Raymond Weinstein’s USCF rating was now 2444. However. Olympiad team in Leipzig. William Lombardy and Robert Byrne in this event to score 6. His only losses were to Fischer and Anthony Saidy. Board 1 was Lombardy and board 2 was Charles Kalme. That year he also played for the U.com
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which he took 6th place and drawing his game with Fischer.5 out of 11. he took 3rd place. He qualified for the next Interzonal Tournament with Fischer and Lombardy.S. In 1960 Raymond was part of the winning U.ChessCentral. He had defeated Lombardy in their individual game. playing 65 games and www. Lombardy and Raymond Weinstein were unable to go to the next Interzonal in Stockholm. and their places were taken by Bisguier and Benko.

in the Netherlands.S.S. He had played in 5 U. but he defeated Larry Evans. Olympiad team in Helsinki and won an individual board performance prize. In 1964 he participated in the11th Student Olympiad in Cracow and the team took 4th place. In the 1963-64 U.ChessCentral. Raymond Weinstein took 9th place in the 1961-62 U. Robert Bryne and Donald Byrne.Chess Trivia
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remembering all the games days after the event. In 1964 Raymond killed an 83-year old man in a nursing home with a razor. Raymond was studying to be a psychiatrist at the Free University of Amsterdam.S. Yugoslavia. Raymond became an International Master in 1962. Raymond went to trial and was judged mentally ill. In 1962 he played on the U. Sam Reshevsky. In 1963 he played on the U. team at the World Student Championship at Budva. www. Lombardy played board 1. Weinstein played board 2. Championship. Championships. He was confined to Ward’s Island for the mentally ill in New York.com
.S. Raymond was fluent in many languages and had a very good memory. Championship Raymond Weinstein ended up in 7th place. where he remains today.S.

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Whitaker. He tied for the U. Open Championship in 1923. He received $100. Norman (1890-1975) Lawyer and International Master. Paul (1891-1967) Known as the King of Jazz and leader of dance and concert orchestras. Winter committee A committee formed to support British champion William Winter’s drinking habit during the London internawww. It was a scam in which he went to prison for five years.com
. The money was never found.000 from Charles Lindbergh on a promise to return the Lindbergh baby. He was a fanatic chess player along with the rest of his orchestra who played during intermissions. White. Ohio.ChessCentral. John (1845-1928) Founder and donor of the world’s largest chess library located in Cleveland.S. Whiteman. He served several other prison sentences for other scams. He was the creator of “symphonic jazz” for popular audiences.000 volumes of chess books and magazines in the collection.

he spent all the funds on booze in the first 3 days. Nimzovich. He had been an active Communist Party organizer and was once sentenced to 6 months in jail for sedition. In the first three rounds he beat Reti. which was in excess of 7 English pounds more than his 6th place prize. Winter arrived sober for each game after the 3rd round and lost every game.ChessCentral. He probably played the only game in master chess that it would have been more profitable to draw or lose than to win. and Colle while intoxicated. The Winter committee couldn’t raise anymore money.Chess Trivia
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tional tournament in 1927. Winter. A draw or loss would have qualified him for special awards to non-prizwinners in the London 1927 tournament.
www. Winter became a chessplayer after his doctor told him to give up politics. They raised over $300 so he could drink and win the event.com
. However. William (1898-1955) A nephew of James Barrie who wrote Peter Pan and two-time British champion.

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Women and chess The first mention of a woman chessplayer comes from an Islamic correspondence between Harun ar Rashid and Nicephorus in 802 A.D. Harun wrote that he purchased a slave girl noted for her skill at chess. The first women’s tournament was organized by the Sussex Chess Association in 1884. A chess club for lady players lasted in New York from 1894 to 1949. There are five women who holds the men’s Grandmaster title: Nona Gaprindashvili, Maya Chiburdanidze, Zsuzsa Polgar, Judith Polgar, and Pia Cramling. World Championship The first world chess championship was in 1886. Chess is the second sport to have a world championship. Billiards was the first sport to have a world championship (1873). World Championship Records Fewest draws-1 (Steinitz-Tchigorin, 1889). Greatest comeback-Steinitz overcame a 1-4 defeat against Zukertort to win in 1886. Last to end in checkmate - 1886. Last to have a game lost on time - 1958. Last to end in stalemate-1978. Longest game-124 moves (Korchnoi-Karpov, www.ChessCentral.com

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1978). Longest match - 48 games (Karpov-Kasparov, 1984-85). Most draws in one match - 40 (Karpov-Kasparov). Most career games - 157 (Botvinnik). Most money - $500,000 (Korchnoi-Karpov, Buganio). Most number of matches - 8 (Lasker). Most wins in one match - 11 (Alekhine-Bogo, 1929). Most career wins - 52 (Lasker). Shortest win - 19 moves (Steinitz-Zukertort). Most consecutive draws - 17 (Karpov-Kasparov). Most number of moves - 1647 (Karpov-Kasparov). Most days - 159 (Karpov-Kasparov). The largest age discrepancy of any world championship play is 32 years when Emanuel Lasker, 26, played Steinitz, 58. The youngest world champion - Gary Kasparov at 22. Oldest - Wilhelm Stientiz who defeated Tchigorin at 56. Most active - Karpov, who played in 32 individual tournaments and 8 team tournaments. We won or tied for first in 26 of those tournaments. That is twice as many as the second most active player, Alekhine, who played in 16 tournaments during his world championship reign. Most tournament games while titleholder - Karpov, with 454 games. That compares to second place Petrosian’s 265 games. www.ChessCentral.com

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World Open The 1983 World Open in New York saw a 5-way tie: Spraggett, Quinteros, Shirazi, Bass, and Zaltsman. Not one was a single U.S. born winner. World War II Prominant chess players lost in World War II include Ilyin-Genevsky, Riumin, S. Weinstein (President of the Leningrad chess club and a trainer of Botvinnik), Rabinovich, Troitzky, Belavenets, Kubbel, Henrich Wolf, Vera Menchik, Olga Menchik, V. Petrov, Junge, Przepiorka, Treybal, Steiner, Votruba, Appel, H. Friedman, A. Frydman, Lowekl, Szpiro, Kremer, Kolski, Regedzinski. World Youth Team Championship The first official FIDE world championship event ever held in the United States was the World Youth Team Championship held in Chicago in 1983. Worst scores O’Sullivan of Ireland only scored 1/2 point out of 13 in the 1947 European Zonal at Hilversum. www.ChessCentral.com

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Wyller, Robert In 1948 Robert Wyller of Glendale, California was playing 1001 correspondece games at once.

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Y
Yanofsky, Daniel Abe (1925- ) Polish born Canadian lawyer and GM (1964) who was the first GM in the British Commonwealth. He won the Canadian championship 8 times, won the US Open in 1942, and the British Championship in 1953. He has been the mayor of a suburb of Winnipeg. Yates, Frederick (1884-1932) Six-time British champion. A leak from a faulty gas pipe killed him while he was asleep. He had just finished a 16 game simultaneous exhibition in London. Yermolinsky, Alex (1958- ) US Grandmaster (1992). US champion in 1993 and 1996. Yogurt A yogurt brought to Karpov during the world championship match with Korchnoi brought a protest. A suitable choice of color or flavor could have conveyed advice. www.ChessCentral.com

ChessCentral.) In 1991 Grandmaster Yusupov was shot and seriously injured in a burglary attempt in Moscow. Youngest player to beat an expert was Ariel Avigad-Vernon. age 7 years and 237 days. A chessboard appears in the Croation coat of arms. Youngest GM is Peter Leko at 14 years. Youngest Youngest master is Jordy Mont-Reynaud.com
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Yugoslavia In 1271 Svetoslav Surinj beat the Venetian Doge. 22 days. Peter II.
www. who beat an expert. Youngest person to win a national championship was Murshed who won the Bangladesh championship at age 12. 4 months. in a chess match and won the right to rule the Dalmation towns of Yugoslavia. Artur (1960. Nick Dumyk. 10 years 7 months.

Cobbold scored 0-8 in the 1951 British Championship. Znosko-Borovsky. www. H. Zapata. Zero Scores Walter Stephens scored 0-11 in the 1945 US Amateur Ch. Mrs. Alexander (1935-1971) Russian Grandmaster (1967) who died of a blod clot after having a leg lengthened. He also fought for the White forces during the Russian revolution and was evacuated to France.com
. He plays board 1 for the Columbian Chess Olympiad team.ChessCentral. Eugene (1884-1954) Russian player of IM strength.Chess Trivia
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Zaitsev. Alonso (1958. He was Columbia’s sportsman of the year in 1978.) Columbia’s first grandmaster (1984). He fought and was wounded in both the 1905 Russo-Japanese war and World War I.

Copenhagen 1923.ChessCentral. Zuckerman (Zook the Book) told him to shut up.Chess Trivia
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Zugswang. Johannes (1842-1888)
www. Bernard (1943. he hurled a captured bishop at the spectator. Zukertort.com
.) International Master who was playing in the 1975 Cleveland International when a spectator became loud. Zuckerman was reprimanded for his “unsportsmanlike” conduct. When that didn’t work. Zuckerman. The Immortal Game between Saemisch and Nimzovich.

philology. He was a leading spokeman for prison reform. linguist.000 francs. magazine editor. and France and was once left for dead. physiology. music critic. French. Danish. Austria. founded in 1809. German. Turkish. He could play 16 chess games blindfolded. He studied chemistry. Arabic. physician. www. In 1878 he won a major tournament in Paris. worth over 5. Latin.com
. The first place prize consisted of a Sevres vase. He was fluent in English. swordsman and marksman. and Polish. He sold it three days later in a pawn shop for about half the value.ChessCentral. and was given to him by the President of France. He edited a political magazine and several chess magazines. Russian. Greek. Sanskrit. Spanish. pianist. He was decorated for gallantry 9 times in three Prussian wars with Denmark. He was one of the best dominoes and whist players in the world. Hebrew. Zurich Chess Club Oldest chess club in Europe. Italian. He had a stroke at Simpson’s chess club while playing chess for a shilling and died the next day. and theology with distinction.Chess Trivia
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Chess master.

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Zweig. His last novel. Dr. He plays a Dr. The novel is about a Yugoslav idiot-savant who become chess champion of the world. He committed suicide in Brazil in 1942 out of a sense of loneliness. The Royal Game was published posthumously in March. Stefan (1881-1942) Austrian biographer and novelist. B who recently escaped from a prison hospital after being tortured by the Nazis.ChessCentral. 1944. B studied chess in prison to prevent going insane.com
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